Comparative study of carbamazepine by different manufacturs

ABSTRACT

To investigate the effectiveness of the national carbamazepine as compared to the imported carbamazepine and to explore certain characteristics of epileptic patients in the two groups. Two groups of epileptic patients were selected, one of the them was receiving the national carbamazepine [100 patents] and the other was receiving the imported carbamazepine [100 patients]. The first part of the study was concerned with comparing the two groups of patients regarding their marital status, education, income level, and severity of the convulsive attacks before treatment. The second part was concerned with studding the effectiveness of the national carbamazepine as compared to the imported carbamazepine. The imported group were all asked about their belief of the effectiveness of the imported carbamazepine. The imported carbamazepine groups as compared to the national carbamazepine groups was more likely to be married and highly educated, and they belonged to the high income group. Severity of the epileptic attacks was also related to the type of treatment. All these associations were not significant at the 0.05 [P>0.05]. Eighty three percent of the imported group believed that the imported carbamazepine is more effective than the national carbamazepine. Out of the 29 patients of the imported carbamazepine group who switched from imported carbamazepine to national carbamazepine, only one patient developed convulsive attacks. This case was not followed up to be sure that attack was an epileptic one. The characteristics of the patients and severity of the attacks are not significantly related to the type of treatment. The belief of certain epileptic patients that the important carbamazepine is more effective than national carbamazepine was defected completely. The effectiveness of the two preparations was almost the same. Special emphasis should be given to the education of patients of the effectiveness of our carbamazepine. Research is needed in this field