Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurologicaldisorder and affects people of all ages. Medication forepilepsy is often life-long and has a major impact on thequality of life - mostly being related to substantialadverse effects. Therefore, over 30% of people withepilepsy do not achieve sufficient seizure control whilsteffective medication being available.Ion channels are often primary targets ofanticonvulsant drugs. They can either act as blockers forvoltage gated sodium and calcium channels or asactivators for potassium or chloride channels.Additionally, modulators of ligand gated ion channels(GABA or Glutamate receptors) are frequently used totreat epilepsy.Employing a panel of functionalelectrophysiological assays using fluorescence basedmethods and patch-clamping on a broad range ofvoltage and ligand gated ion channels, we were able tosuccessfully screen for drugs with a beneficial actionprofile. In successful leads we found drugs thatselectively interacted with TTX sensitive, neuronalvoltage gated sodium channels. Activation and fastinactivation were unchanged, while an increased affinityin the slow inactivated state was observed. This profileis in contrast to traditional anticonvulsant drugs whichshow their major effects on the fast inactivated state ofvoltage gated sodium channels. One drug showedsubstantial shifts of the voltage dependence of the slowinactivation only for NaV1.2 and 1.6. This favours thisdrug for treating patients with diseases withcompromised NaV1.1 function in interneurons, such asAlzheimer's disease.