title: Low plasma antioxidant status in patients with epilepsy and the role of antiepileptic drugs on oxidative stress.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oxidative stress has been implicated in various disorders including epilepsy. We studied the antioxidant status in patients with epilepsy and aimed at determining whether there was any difference in the antioxidant levels between patients and controls, patients who are not on antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), and on treatment, between individual AEDs and patients on monotherapy and polytherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Antioxidant levels like catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), vitamin E, glutathione (GSH), thiol group (SH), uric acid, and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were compared between 100 patients with epilepsy and equal number of controls. Twenty-five patients who were not on AEDs were compared with patients on AEDs and the control group. Patients were divided into monotherapy and polytherapy group and antioxidant status was compared between the two groups and between individual drugs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Catalase, SH, vitamin E, and TAC were significantly low in patients with epilepsy than those in the control group (P < 0.001). GSH and uric acid did not show any difference; GPx in patients was significantly higher than those in the control group There were no differences in the antioxidant levels between the treated and the untreated groups; however, it was lower in untreated patients than controls (P < 0.001), suggesting that AEDs do not modify the oxidative stress. Patients on Valproate (VPA) showed higher catalase and GPx levels. Catalase was higher in the monotherapy than polytherapy group (P < 0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study found significantly low levels of antioxidant in patients as compared to controls. AED did not influence the antioxidant status suggesting that seizures induce oxidative stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Narayana Medical College and Superspeciality Hospital, Chintareddypalem, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Bindu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Menon
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Narayana Medical College and Superspeciality Hospital, Chintareddypalem, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Krishnan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ramalingam
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Narayana Medical College and Superspeciality Hospital, Chintareddypalem, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Rajendiran Vinoth
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Kumar
keywords: Antiepileptic drugs; catalase; epilepsy; glutathione; glutathione peroxidase; seizures; thiol goup; total antioxidant capacity; uric acid; vitamin E