title: Refractory epilepsy: treatment with new antiepileptic drugs.
abstract: Five antiepileptic drugs have been marketed in the last decade. We report here a retrospective study of patients attending our unit who were prescribed one of the new antiepileptic drugs. All these patients had refractory localization related epilepsy and had failed to respond to a first-line drug. The drugs had a different profile of side-effects but topiramate (42%) was the most common drug to be withdrawn due to side-effects as compared with tiagabine (26%), vigabatrin (16%), gabapentin (16%), and lamotrigine (15%). With regard to efficacy, 31% of the patients receiving gabapentin had a greater than 50% reduction in seizures compared with lamotrigine (25%), topiramate (20%), vigabatrin (19%) and tiagabine (11%). The number of patients remaining seizure free with gabapentin was 8% whilst for lamotrigine this was 5%, vigabatrin 5%, topiramate 1% and tiagabine 4%. In conclusion, all these five antiepileptic drugs are useful in treating refractory localization related epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, York District Hospital, York, UK. vibgyor9@yahoo.com
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Crawford
mesh_terms: D000085:Acetates / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000588:Amines; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003509:Cyclohexanecarboxylic Acids; D004351:Drug Resistance; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D005632:Fructose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000077206:Gabapentin; D006801:Humans; D000077213:Lamotrigine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009557:Nipecotic Acids / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D000078308:Tiagabine; D000077236:Topiramate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014227:Triazines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D020888:Vigabatrin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid
chemical_list: D000085:Acetates; D000588:Amines; D000927:Anticonvulsants; D003509:Cyclohexanecarboxylic Acids; D009557:Nipecotic Acids; D014227:Triazines; D000077236:Topiramate; D005632:Fructose; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; D000077206:Gabapentin; D020888:Vigabatrin; D000077213:Lamotrigine; D000078308:Tiagabine