Phenytoin / Epanutin / Dilantin – Promotes Well-Being while acting as a Prevention Therapy

Many drugs have more than one use. Sometimes this leads to a drug being approved for use for a number of conditions. In other cases, additional uses may be classed as “off-label uses” i.e. where regulations allow for approved medications to be prescribed for uses other than their intended indications. Epanutin (a brand name for a medication containing the active ingredient phenytoin) falls firmly into this second category. Phenytoin’s one and only approved use in the US is that of an anticonvulsant but if a count were made of all of phenytoin’s off-label uses, you would no doubt find that it has more off label uses than any other drug.

But before we look at some of the off label uses, let’s first of all look at Epanutin’s use as an anticonvulsant because not only is this it’s approved use but it is probably the use for which it is best known.

Fits or seizures can be caused by disturbances to the electrical activity within the brain. This electrical activity is one of the key ways in which brain and nerve cells communicate with each other. Not surprisingly, this electrical activity must be carefully regulated if the brain and the nervous system are to function properly. If abnormally rapid and repetitive electrical signals are released in the brain, the brain becomes over-stimulated and normal function is disturbed. This can result in fits or seizures.

Epanutin works by preventing excessive electrical activity in the brain, which in turn stops seizures. It is thought that Epanutin works by preventing sodium from entering nerve cells when they begin to fire rapid and repetitive electrical signals. Without a build up of sodium, nerve cells cannot charge and pass on electrical signals and this in turn stabilizes the brain’s electrical activity and prevents seizures from occurring. This makes Epanutin suitable for the treatment of certain types of epilepsy namely generalised tonic-clonic seizures (grand mal epilepsy) and temporal lobe epilepsy as well as other convulsive states such as seizures associated with brain surgery or head injury.

And it’s this ability to regulate electrical activity at the level of the individual cell membrane that probably helps to explain why the therapeutic effects of phenytoin can be felt across such a wide range of disorders beyond that of the treatment of epilepsy. Actions at the level of the cellular membrane are fundamental to all our body functions because most cellular activity is modulated by the electrical and electrochemical processes that occur on cell membranes.

Add to this the fact that whilst phenytoin may correct inappropriate electrical activity, it does not interfere with normal electrical function and that it has a calming effect without being a sedative but can also have an energising effect without being a stimulant and it’s easy to see why phenytoin has so many off label uses. It also has regulatory effects on endocrine and metabolic processes can act as a de-stressor and possesses the ability to help in the healing process.

All of this in a medicine that is none habit forming. And it’s quick acting too – usually the effects can be felt within an hour!

So just what else is phenytoin used to treat? Well, according to the Dreyfus Medical Foundation, phenytoin is effective in treating over eighty different symptoms and disorders and is currently being used for a wide variety of conditions in nearly thirty different countries. Millions of people worldwide have been prescribed the drug and literally thousands of research papers have been published detailing studies using the drug for different therapeutic purposes. It simply wouldn’t be possible to list all of phenytoin’s uses within the context of this article but some of the conditions that respond to phenytoin therapy include: