Long-term treatment with oxcarbazepine in clinical practice.
Oxcarbazepine (up to 1800 mg daily orally) was given for 12 months to 61 adult epileptic patients in clinical practice, as monotherapy (n=52) or adjunctive therapy (n=9). Patients on monotherapy became seizure-free (76.9%) or experienced > or = 75% seizure rate reduction, with two exceptions. In the adjunctive therapy group, one patient became seizure-free and two experienced a 50-75% seizure rate reduction. These seizure-free rates are higher than those reported in the literature. The drug was well tolerated; only two patients withdrew because of intolerance (3.3%). Long-term data is essential when evaluating a drug for lifelong treatment. This study contributes to the growing body of 12-month evidence on oxcarbazepine.
Passarella
Bruno
B
Neurology Unit, A Perrino Hospital, Brindisi, Italy. enxitp@tin.it
Nozzoli
Cecilia
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002220:Carbamazepine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000078330:Oxcarbazepine; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000927:Anticonvulsants; D002220:Carbamazepine; D000078330:Oxcarbazepine