Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 6, Issue 8, 2000

In recent years several new drugs (oxcarbazepine, lamotrigine, topiramate, gabapentin, zonisamide, tiagabine, fosphenytoin, vigabatrin and felbamate) have been added to the therapeutic armamentarium against epilepsy. Some of these represent structural modifications of pre-existing compounds, others were developed with the specific objective of modifying neurotransmitter function, and many more were found to b Read More

In most of the epilepsies and epileptic syndromes, the decision to initiate antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy is often a far simpler one than the decision to stop it. The primary factor that drives a patient to want to discontinue therapy, and a doctor to endorse or recommend this, is a fear of long-term adverse events, a consideration that may be entirely justified as the side effects of vigabatrin and felbamate have proved. On Read More

Issues linked to epileptic women are being reviewed. Ovarian steroid hormones have a number of effects on the brain that predispose to epileptic activity. In particular, estradiol produces changes in the hippocampus synapses predisposing hyperexcitability associated with seizures. Also, menses and menopause periods, in which there are changing levels of steroid ovarian hormones, are associated with a particular appea Read More

After a short historical review of the development of the pharmaceutical treatment of the epilepsies the author reviews some of the possible strategies to manage patients with the different types of epilepsies and epileptic syndromes using the classical drugs. A strategy used by most of the physicians uses Sodium Valproate as the first line drug for almost all patients. This may be replaced by other drugs according to thei Read More

Seizures have a variety of etiologies and manifestations. Descriptions of various epiletic seizures as well as electroencephalographic findings have led to a unifying international classification of epileptic seizures and epilepsy syndromes. The development of this classification system and the emergence of several new antiepiletic drugs have led to progress in the refractory pediatric patient particularly disorders which are trad Read More