Adjunctive lamotrigine XR for primary generalized tonic–clonic seizures in a randomized, placebo-controlled study

Treatment of idiopathic generalized epilepsy – a review of the evidence

“…A total of 143 patients took at least one dose of the study drug and returned valid seizure frequency data and were, therefore, included in the efficacy analysis (70 on lamotrigine, 73 on placebo). In this study, the mean doses of extended-release (XR) lamotrigine were 352, 499 and 299 mg/day for patients concomitantly treated with valproate, an enzyme inducing AED and other types of AED, respectively [63]. During the double-blind treatment phase (titration and maintenance phases combined) the median percentage reductions in PGTC seizure frequency were 75.4 and 32.1% for lamotrigine XR and placebo, respectively (p < 0.0001).…”

“…Another trial evaluated the long-acting form of lamotrigine [63]. This was a randomized, double-blind, parallelgroup, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial.…”

Use of New Generation Antiepileptic Drugs in Children

“…Vigabatrin is the drug of first choice in treating infantile spasm with tuberous sclerosis 2 . Lamotrigine (LTG) is effective in partial seizures, primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures, childhood absence epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy 5,6 . LTG does not induce or inhibit hepatic enzymes 2 .…”

An overview on antiepileptic drugs

“…LTG monotherapy was found to be an effective treatment for children with newly diagnosed childhood absence seizures and an extendedrelease formulation (LTG-XR) may be given once daily for increasing compliance (30). Further a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study reported that adjunctive therapy with LTG-XR administered once daily to a target of 200 to 500 mg/day significantly reduced weekly frequency of primary generalized tonicclonic (PGTC) seizures and increased the percentage of patients with a ≥ 50% reduction in PGTC seizure frequency (31). A retrospective population-based study by Knoester et al (2005) suggests that LTG was effective in 40% of the patients with refractory epilepsy measured by reduction in seizure frequency and retention time as observed in 165 patients.…”

“…Retigabine (31). Retigabine (RTG), N-(2-amino-4-(4-fluorobenzylamino) phenyl) carbamic acid ethyl ester effective against partial-onset seizures is the fi rst novel KCNQ opener in the late stages of clinical development with an excellent safety profile (104).…”