Abstracts

Rationale: Recent studies [1–4] reported Perampanel (PER) treatment emergent adverse effects (AE), but not always was clearly stated how psychiatric AE were assessed, and whether pre-treatment psychiatric assessment was performed. The aim of this study is to assess prospectively the effect of PER on psychological functioning and quality of life (QoL) in a group of patients with drug-refractory focal epilepsy (DRE), before and during PER adjunctive treatment. Methods: Patients with DRE have been enrolled in this 18-months duration study. Socio-demographic and clinical information have been collected and QoL levels, irritability, depressive symptoms and anxiety have been assessed, at three time points (before PER, after 3 and 6 months), using the QoLIE-31, the Irritability Questionnaire, the BDI-II, and the STAI Y-1 and Y-2 questionnaires.  Results: Data from 45 patients (females 40%, mean age 40.4 yrs SD 12.17) was collected. Before PER treatment, QoL levels were slightly lower in our sample compared to normative epilepsy data in overall QoLIE-31 score (mean 61.14 SD 15.72), emotional well-being score (mean 65.53 SD 13.50) and social functioning score (mean 60.96 SD 23.54). Depressive symptoms were slightly higher than normative population (mean 15.36 SD 12.17), while anxiety and irritability scores were found not pathological according to normative data. Comparing T0 and T2 assessments, a slight increase in QoL scores were found for all scales (except for social functioning: 56.71 SD 20.50), depressive symptoms decrease (mean 14.50 SD 10.43), while irritability scores increased (mean 42.29 SD 17.76), and anxiety scores were unchanged. Conclusions: This longitudinal study allow us to conclude that QoL levels increase after PER treatment together with a reduction in depressive symptoms. However, irritability symptoms may worsen early during PER treatment. More data is needed to assess the presence of these AE during long term treatment, and their relation with PER dose. Furthermore, the instruments composing our study protocol proved to be accurate and provided reliable information on the psychological functioning and QoL of patients with DRE taking PER treatment.[1] H. Coyle, P. Clough, P. Cooper, R. Mohanraj, Clinical experience with perampanel: Focus on psychiatric adverse effects, Epilepsy Behav. 41 (2014) 193–196[2] F. Rugg-Gunn, Adverse effects and safety profile of perampanel: A review of pooled data, Epilepsia. 55 (2014) 13–15[3] G. Zaccara, F. Giovannelli, M. Cincotta, A. Verrotti, E. Grillo, The adverse event profile of perampanel: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, Eur. J. Neurol. 20 (2013) 1204–1211[4] B. Huber, Increased risk of suicidality on perampanel (Fycompa??)?, Epilepsy Behav. 31 (2014) 71–72 Funding: The research leading to these results has received funding from Paolo Zorzi Association for Neurosciences (NPO).