Abstract
We studied 41 patients suffering from pharmacoresistant focal epilepsy, medicated with PHT (22 patients) or CBZ (19 patients) to which LTG was gradually added. 25 patients dropped out during LTG add-on phase: 1 for withdrawal of consent, 5 for treatment failure, 4 for adverse events and 15 because the reduction of seizure number during PHT or CBZ withdrawal so they continued with LTG + PHT or LTG + CBZ. One of the patients died suddenly while on LTG + CBZ treatment. 10 patients completed the study reaching LTG monotherapy, of these 3 reached a complete seizure control, 4 had a seizure reduction higher than 50%, while 3 showed a seizure reduction between 6 and 36%. The LTG plasma concentration of the patients which completed the study with LTG monotherapy varied between 3,3 and 11,2 μg/ml (median 6,1) with a wide intraindividual variability notwithstanding the same LTG daily dose. The drawbacks of the study protocol are discussed as well as the problem of sudden unexplained death occurring in patients treated with LTG. These results should be confirmed by the final analysis of the international study owing to the limited sample of evaluated patients.
| Translated title of the contribution | Multicenter study on Lamotrigine efficacy: Clinical and methodological observations in a group of patients |
|---|---|
| Original language | Italian |
| Pages (from-to) | 135-137 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Bollettino - Lega Italiana contro l'Epilessia |
| Issue number | 86-87 |
| Publication status | Published - 1994 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Neurology