title: Progabide as an add-on drug for epilepsy refractory to high dose antiepileptic drug therapy.
abstract: In a double-blind cross-over add-on trial an average daily dose of 2100 mg progabide or placebo were given for 3 months each as adjunctive therapy to 11 patients with intractable complex partial seizures uncontrolled by a high-dose regimen of either carbamazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin or primidone. A reduction or an increase in seizure frequency by more than 50% was seen in one patient each. Mild transient sedative side effects were observed in two patients. The plasma concentrations of the concomitant antiepileptic drugs remained unchanged. Progabide appears to be as effective as primary antiepileptic drug for adjunctive therapy in partial epilepsy refractory to previous high-dose therapy. Progabide does not seem to be the drug urgently needed for failures of standard therapy despite its few side effects.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants; C017985:progabide; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid