Levetiracetam may be more effective for late-onset partial epilepsy.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Many agents are available for treating epilepsy; however, population studies have failed to show overall differences in efficacy for a given seizure type. Clinical experience suggests that certain individuals will respond to a given agent while others with the same seizure type will not.

OBJECTIVES:

To examine a population of patients who received one of the newer antiepileptic drugs, levetiracetam, and to identify those who had either a dramatic improvement or a significant worsening of seizures.

METHODS:

Retrospective medical record review of patients with refractory epilepsy.

RESULTS:

Patients who responded well to levetiracetam therapy were older at the onset of epileptic seizure than those who did not (mean [SD] age, 51 [5] vs 27 [3] years; P<.05). This was also true of the subset of patients who had localization-related epilepsy. Patients with temporal lobe onset were likely to do well whereas patients with frontal lobe onset were not.

CONCLUSIONS:

These results suggest that certain subpopulations may be particularly likely to respond to levetiracetam therapy. These need to be confirmed in a larger prospective trial; however, looking for specific characteristics of patients who respond to certain drugs may lead to useful guidelines for drug choices in treating epilepsy.

• Authors: Carl W Bazil, Andrew Rose, Stanley Resor, Bülent Yapicular, Lawrence J Hirsch
• Journal: Archives of neurology (Arch Neurol) Vol. 59 Issue 12 Pg. 1905-8 (Dec 2002) ISSN: 0003-9942 [Print] United States
• PMID: 12470178 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Anticonvulsants
• Levetiracetam
• Piracetam

Topics

• Adult
• Age of Onset
• Anticonvulsants (therapeutic use)
• Epilepsies, Partial (drug therapy, physiopathology)
• Female
• Humans
• Levetiracetam
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Neuropsychological Tests (statistics & numerical data)
• Piracetam (analogs & derivatives, therapeutic use)
• Postoperative Period
• Preoperative Care (statistics & numerical data)
• Retrospective Studies
• Verbal Learning