The Next Wave of Anticonvulsants
A significant proportion of patients with epilepsy are not adequately managed with monotherapy and require the use of adjunctive therapy with 2 or more drugs. However, the desired results are not always achieved with the presently available anticonvulsant drugs. Controlled clinical trials support the use of 3 relatively new anticonvulsants, levetiracetam, oxcarbazepine and zonisamide, as adjunctive therapy for the treatment of partial-onset seizures in adults with epilepsy. Moreover, oxcarbazepine exhibited clinical efficacy as monotherapy and is approved for this indication. Due to their favourable pharmacokinetic, tolerability and efficacy profiles these 3 new anticonvulsants are significant additions to current therapeutic options in the management of epilepsy.