Quality of life, anxiety and depression in adult patients after add-on of levetiracetam and conversion to levetiracetam monotherapy.

The aim of this study was to investigate the change of health related quality of life (HRQoL), anxiety and depression in adult patients in whom an adjunctive treatment with levetiracetam (LEV) was converted to a LEV monotherapy. A prospective, open, investigator initiated multicenter study enrolled 140 patients in whom LEV was added to the existing antiepileptic medication. A total of 65 patients who benefited from the 16-week add-on treatment with LEV (≥50% seizure reduction) were converted to LEV monotherapy (16-week follow-up). In LEV responders, HRQoL, anxiety and depression improved after add-on of LEV. The subsequent conversion to LEV monotherapy did not lead to a significant change in HRQoL, anxiety and depression. However, comparing baseline with LEV monotherapy, the improvements remained significant for most dimensions of HRQoL and for anxiety and depression. Patients' ratings of efficacy of LEV were related with their HRQoL after the conversion to monotherapy. Add-on therapy of LEV improved HRQoL, anxiety and depression in LEV responders. Conversion to a LEV monotherapy did not inevitably improve HRQoL in LEV responders, but the positive effect was maintained in the majority of the patients. The effects were highly related to seizure reduction.

Topiramate overdose: a case report of a patient with extremely high topiramate serum concentrations and nonconvulsive status epilepticus.

We report the case of a 21-year-old man with idiopathic generalized epilepsy who ingested about 8,000 mg of topiramate (TPM) in a suicide attempt. On admission to the hospital he had a nonconvulsive status epilepticus and received 4 mg lorazepam i.v. He recovered rapidly despite an initial TPM concentration of 144.6 microg/ml. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a patient who survived such a high TPM concentration. The case indicates that nonconvulsive status epilepticus could be a manifestation of TPM intoxication.

Retention rate of pregabalin in drug-resistant epilepsy: 1-year follow-up, single-centre observation in 105 consecutive, adult patients.

OBJECTIVES: Pregabalin (PGB) is a newer antiepileptic drug (AED) licensed as add-on treatment for partial epilepsy in adults. Efficacy and safety have been proven in several controlled clinical studies. These trials, however, only partially reflect clinical practice. Retention rate has been established as a marker for efficacy and safety of AEDs in long-term follow-up studies. METHODS: We evaluated the data of the first 105 patients treated with PGB at Bethel Epilepsy Centre, a tertiary referral centre for epilepsy. The patients were interviewed after 3, 6 and 12 months. RESULTS: 105 adult patients (aged 38+/-13 years) were treated with PGB, on average in combination with 2.1 AEDs (mean observation period 232 days). 76.2% had focal epilepsy, 19.0 multifocal epilepsy, and 3.8% epilepsy with both focal and generalised seizures. 40% continued PGB with the following outcome: 5.7% seizure-free for at least 1 month (4.8% for at least 3 months, 2.4% for at least 6 months; one of the seizure-free patients, however, had had epilepsy surgery during the observational period), 17.1% responders (> or =50% reduction of seizure frequency but not seizure-free), 13.3% with unchanged or increased seizure frequency. Reasons for withdrawal were lack of efficacy (47.6%) or side-effects (12.7%). CONCLUSIONS: PGB is a new therapeutic option as add-on therapy for patients with highly refractory focal epilepsies although the therapeutic success that can be expected in this group of patients is limited.