title: Efficacy and tolerability of the first antiepileptic drug in children with newly diagnosed idiopathic epilepsy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Limited data are available for the effectiveness of the antiepileptic drugs in children in daily clinical practice. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of the first prescribed old and new antiepileptic drugs in children with newly diagnosed idiopathic epilepsy during a 12-month period.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 289 children (141 females and 148 males) who received phenobarbital (n=33), valproate (n=142), carbamazepine (n=42), oxcarbazepine (n=38), or levetiracetam (n=34) as the first-line treatment, were enrolled in the study. Seizure control and the occurrence of adverse events were assessed during a treatment period of 12 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 245 (84.8%) patients remained seizure-free during the study period. The rate of seizure control did not differ significantly between the drug groups (p=0.099). Forty-four (15.2%) patients including 1 (3.0%) treated with phenobarbital, 22 (15.5%) with valproate, 7 (16.7%) with carbamazepine, 10 (26.3%) with oxcarbazepine, and 4 (11.8%) with levetiracetam had treatment failure. There was no significant difference between seizure-free and failure groups in terms of age, gender, seizure type, and drugs used. Overall, 80 (27.7%) patients had adverse events, of those the most common ones were behavioral problems, nausea and/or vomiting, weight gain, and learning difficulties. The reasons for treatment failures were lack of seizure control in 29 (10.0%) patients and intolerable adverse events in 15 (5.2%) patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It appears that old (phenobarbital, valproate and carbamazepine) and new antiepileptic drugs (oxcarbazepine and levetiracetam) have similar efficacy and tolerability profiles. Institutional ethic number is 28.3.2013/14.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Neurology, Dr. Behçet Uz Children's Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. Electronic address: drunsalyilmaz@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Unsal
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Yılmaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Dokuz Eylul University Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. Electronic address: tuba.yilmaz@deu.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Tuba Sevim
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Yılmaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Neurology, Dr. Behçet Uz Children's Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. Electronic address: gdizdarer@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Gülşen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dizdarer
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Neurology, Dr. Behçet Uz Children's Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. Electronic address: akincigulcin@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Gülçin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Akıncı
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Neurology, Dr. Behçet Uz Children's Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. Electronic address: orkideege@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Orkide
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Güzel
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Neurology, Ege University Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. Electronic address: hasan.tekgul@ege.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tekgül
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000145:classification; D001526:Behavioral Symptoms / Q000139:chemically induced; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D017211:Treatment Failure; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants
keywords: Antiepileptic drugs; Children; Efficacy; Epilepsy; Tolerability; Treatment failure