A small mortality-model study used subsequent treatment burden as a predictor. A score containing first-week information should not be described as entirely admission-based.
The study reviewed fifty-nine patients, including six nonsurvivors. Its revised score incorporated the number of antiseizure drugs used during the first week and thiobarbiturate use.
The comparator scores included a framework with diazepam resistance among its components. The authors reported better prediction with their new score in this sample.
Information collected during the first week cannot support a prediction made before that information exists. More intensive treatment can also mark refractory disease rather than cause the poor outcome.
Few deaths, mixed seizure syndromes, retrospective ascertainment, and limited external assessment constrain reliability. The paper cannot prove that treatment escalation was harmful or that benzodiazepine resistance alone determines prognosis. An opinion should distinguish baseline severity, evolving response, later treatment, and the time at which a prognostic claim is made.
Original analysis of the supplied journal article, identified as PMC8622169.