Abstracts

Rationale: To assess the clinical effect of acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) on cognitive and memory function in epileptic patients treated with antiepileptic drugs (AED). Methods: We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study administering ALC in forty-two patients with chronic epilepsy who were treated at Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital between 2011 and 2014. Patients were randomly divided into two groups, and using double-blind administration, group A was treated with ALC and group B with placebo for 90 days Results: There were 19 (45.2%) patients belonging to ALC group (group A) and the other 23 (54.8%) patients with placebo group (group B). The two groups were similar in demographic characteristics, baseline neuropsychological assessments and laboratory findings. After 90 days in group A, we observed a significant increase in memory quotient (MQ) (P < 0.05), and word fluency test (category) (P < 0.05). In addition, we could observe a tendency suggesting increase of the Inteligence Quotient (IQ) (p = 0.072) and decrease of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (p = 0.078) after ALC treatment. However, there were no significant changes in serum ammonia level, Mini Mental State Examination, Trail Making Test (TMT-A & TMT-B), Symbol Digit Modalities Test, pegboard test (L & R hand) and Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVL) after ALC treatment. Conclusions: In previous studies, ALC has shown encouraging results in the treatment of degenerative brain disease when cognitive functions are involved. From our results, ALC may have a crucial role in improvements of neuropsychological activities related to memory and frontal lobe function in patients with chronic, focal epilepsy. Funding: none