Your browser does not support the NLM PubReader view.

Go to this page to see a list of supporting browsers.

Epilepsy: Drug Treatment

Article information

J Korean Med Assoc. 2003;46(4):287-297
Publication date (electronic) : 2003 April 30
doi : https://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2003.46.4.287
Kyoung Heo, M.D.
Department of Neurology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Severance Hospital, Korea. kheo@yumc.yonsei.ac.kr

Abstract

The prognosis of epilepsy has improved considerably, and about 80% of patients can now be expected to achieve a complete seizure control with antiepileptic drug treatment. It is important to understand that the response to individual drugs may vary considerably in relation to the seizure type or epilepsy syndrome, so that optimization of treatment requires careful individualization of the dosage, and that rational polytherapy should be performed in consideration of the mechanisms of action of antiepileptic drugs, adverse effects, and drug interactions. Although newly developed antiepileptic drugs have some advantages in terms of adverse effects and pharmacokinetics compared with traditional antiepileptic drugs, they have demonstrated no significant difference in efficacy in comparative studies. The purpose of this chapter is to review the basic principles, which should guide the optimal treatment with antiepileptic drugs in patients with epilepsy.

Keywords: Monotherapy; Combination therapy; Pharmacokinetics; Toxicity

References

1. Deckers CL, Genton P, Sills GJ, Schmidt D. Current limitations of antiepileptic drug therapy: a conference review. Epilepsy Res 2003. 531–17.
2. Marson AG, Kadir ZA, Hutton JL, Chadwick DW. The new antiepileptic drugs: a systemic review of their efficacy and tolerability. Epilepsia 1997. 38859–880.
3. Marson AG, Williamson PR, Clough H, Hutton JL, Chadwick DW. Epilepsy Monotherapy Trial Group. Carbamazepine versus valproate monotherapy for epilepsy: a meta-analysis. Epilepsia 2002. 43505–513.
4. Patsalos PN, Froscher W, Pisani F, van Rijn CM. The importance of drug interactions in epilepsy therapy. Epilepsia 2002. 43365–385.

Article information Continued

Copyright © 2003 Korean Medical Association

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Table 1

Table 1

Table 2

Table 2

Table 3

Table 3

Table 4

Table 4