The Antiepileptic Drugs Therapy Practice in Epileptic Patients: What Does Evidence Show?

Abstract

Introduction: Though studies regarding epilepsy have been conducted in different parts of the world, there is a scarcity of established studies regarding treatment outcomes among patients with epilepsy. Therefore, the aim of this review is to assess antiepileptic drug therapy among patients with epilepsy. This will help in exploring the existing AEDs therapy practice including the outcomes.
 Methods: Using different search engines like EndNote (Pubmed), Google, Google Scholar and Hinari, literatures were searched for review. Different literatures like, research reports, articles, documents, books and internet findings relevant to this study were reviewed.
 Findings and discussion: Outcome of AEDs therapy is affected by several factors including patient-related factors, disease related factors and drug related factors. The selection of the most appropriate AEDs for a patient with seizures depends upon the accurate classification of the seizures, the type of epilepsy or epileptic syndromes, and drug such as availability and accessibility of drugs, their efficacy, side effect and comfort use as well as patient factors. So, the selection of AED therapy at present is an empirical process, based on seizure and patient-specific variables and a working knowledge of available AEDs, including AED mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, drug-drug interactions, and medication side effects and ultimately the treatment outcomes.
 Conclusion: It is recommended that researchers need to focus on further longitudinal and interventional studies in providing adequate evidence about the cause-effect relationship between the AEDs therapy practice and seizure control.