Abstract

MINI-REVIEW OF THE ANTIEPILEPTIC DRUG EFFECTS ON THE CHANGES IN AED-INDUCED MICE

Kong Huanyu*, Qi Zhanpeng and Nadiah Syafiqah Nor Azman

ABSTRACT

The primary treatment of epilepsy is the prophylactic use of anticonvulsant drugs, also known as antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). The goal is prevention of all seizures with minimization of negative effects on general well-being, cognition, mood, and endocrine function. Carbamazepine, phenytoin, phenobarbital and valproic acid are considered as classical anticonvulsants. Due to narrow therapeutic range therapeutic drug monitoring of classical anticonvulsants are essential. Moreover, due to strong protein binding, monitoring free phenytoin and valproic acid is useful in patients with uremia, liver disease and hypoalbuminemia(critically ill patients, burn patients, pregnancy and elderly). During the last three decades, the antiepileptic drug development has been focused on the specific therapeutic targets concerning the neuro biology of epilepsy but most of the available AEDs have not shown efficacy in treatment of patients with refractory epilepsy. Despite the apparent success of the AED discovery process, there is a need of developing more efficacious and safe antiepileptic drugs particularly for the treatment of refractory seizures. More recently newer anticonvulsant drugs received FDA approval. Although some of these newer anticonvulsants have wide therapeutic windows, therapeutic drug monitoring could be beneficial for other newer anticonvulsant drugs such as lamotrigine, gabapentin, levetiracetam, oxcarbazepine, tiagabine, topiramate and zonisamide. This review mainly emphasizes the advantages and disadvantages of several commonly used anti epileptic drugs that have been validated through animal experiments and have relatively clear effects. People are trying to better determine which type of drug to use based on the condition, and further research is needed.

Keywords: Antiepileptic, Phenytoin, Sodium Valproate, Levetiracetam.