Abstracts

Patients who have failed treatment with an antiepileptic drug (AED) are less likely to become seizure-free on monotherapy with any other agent. There is little established evidence regarding the efficacy of specific polytherapy combinations. We compared the efficacy of polytherapy with levetiracetam (LEV) and lamotrigine (LTG) with monotherapy with either one of these agents., We reviewed antiepileptic drug regimens of 91 patients with epilepsy treated from 2000-2006. The patients[apos] response to monotherapy with LEV (N 42) and LTG (N 37), were compared to polytherapy using LEV+LTG (N 12). These patients had failed other AEDs and were placed on LTG and/or LEV for seizure control. We measured the decrease in seizure frequency per month using paired Student[apos]s[italic] t[/italic]-test., Patients treated with LEV monotherapy showed a significant decrease in mean seizure frequency (from 2.02 to 0.86, p[lt]0.048). Patients treated with LTG monotherapy had an increase in mean seizure frequency but this difference was not significant (from 2.14 to 3.11, p[lt]0.56). Patients treated with LEV and LTG polytherapy showed a significant decrease in their mean seizure frequency (from 10.5 to 0.5, p[lt]0.07)., These findings suggest that monotherapy with LEV and polytherapy using LEV and LTG in combination may be more effective than monotherapy with LTG alone. These results could be due to efficacy of either LEV or the LEV-LTG combination. Direct comparisons of patients sequentially treated with LEV and LTG and then with LEV and LTG together would be needed to determine this.,