title: New antiepileptic drugs.
abstract: Notwithstanding pharmacokinetics has greatly increased the rational approach to the drug treatment of epilepsies, about 25% of the patients do not respond to the therapy. Therefore, a great effort has been made to discover new antiepileptic drugs effective in refractory seizures. On the basis of increased knowledge of seizure pathophysiology two principal groups of drugs have been developed: the first enhancing brain GABA activity (vigabatrin); the second inhibiting excitatory amino-acids (lamotrigine and felbamate). Oxcarbazepine has the same mechanism of action as carbamazepine, whereas gabapentin's mechanism is still uncertain. The major clinical indications of these new antiepileptic drugs are represented by partial complex seizures. Side effects (mostly regarding the central nervous system) appear mild, and clinical interactions have little importance. The role of therapeutic drug monitoring for these substances is at present not well established.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, University of Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Benetello
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004347:Drug Interactions; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants