Preparing for your epilepsy annual review: how to get the most from the appointment

If you have epilepsy, you should be offered a structured review of your condition at least once a year — usually with your GP, an epilepsy nurse, or your neurology team. It's easy to treat it as a formality, but the annual review is one of the best opportunities you get to improve your care: to review medication, raise side effects, and check whether anything needs to change. The difference between a rushed, forgettable appointment and a genuinely useful one usually comes down to preparation.

What an epilepsy review should cover

A good annual review typically looks at:

• Seizure control — how often you're having seizures and whether that's changed.
• Medication — whether it's working, side effects, and whether the dose or drug should change.
• Triggers and lifestyle — sleep, stress, alcohol, and other common triggers.
• Safety — driving status, risks at home or work, and any injuries.
• Wider wellbeing — mood, memory, and mental health, which are often overlooked.
• Women's health — contraception, pregnancy plans, and medication considerations where relevant.

Prepare before you go

Appointments are short — often ten minutes. Walking in prepared means you cover what matters instead of trying to remember it on the spot:

• Bring your seizure record. This is the single most valuable thing you can do. A seizure diary showing how many seizures you've had since your last review, of what type, and when, gives the clinician hard data instead of a rough estimate. "About the same as usual" tells them nothing; "nine seizures in the last year, six of them clustered around poor sleep" tells them a lot.
• Note your medication and any side effects. Tiredness, memory problems, mood changes — write them down as you notice them, because they're easy to forget in the room.
• Write your top three questions. Prioritise them so the most important gets answered even if time runs out.
• Track your triggers. If you've spotted a pattern — seizures after late nights, around your period, or when stressed — bring it. Patterns guide treatment decisions.

Why a seizure log changes the appointment

Most people underestimate how many seizures they've had, or forget the milder ones entirely — especially focal seizures or events during sleep. Relying on memory means your clinician is making decisions on incomplete information. A log fixes that. When you can hand over a clear summary or PDF report, the conversation shifts from reconstructing what happened to actually deciding what to do next — which is the whole point of the review.

During and after the appointment

• Take notes or bring someone. It's easy to forget what was said. A second person, or a quick written summary, helps.
• Ask what happens next. Any medication changes, tests, referrals, or when your next review should be.
• Update your records. If your medication changes, note the date — it matters if seizures change afterwards, and for things like DVLA reviews.
• Keep tracking. The log you brought this year becomes next year's evidence too.