[Optimizing the therapy of symptomatic partial epilepsy with sustained release carbamazepine]
Abstract:
This article summarizes a three-year experience of treating 34 patients with carbamazepine (CMZ) retard with partial epilepsy who had previously been treated with a standard form of CMZ. The following steps were taken in order to optimize the therapy: the usage of monotherapy with CMZ, an increase of CMZ dose if it was necessary, usage of CMZ retard-form. Increase of the dose (more than 1400 mg) resulted in adverse reactions in 6 patients, which regressed when the patients started to be treated with CMZ retard form. On the whole, optimization of therapy provided the following effects: 18 patients (53%) did not experience any seizures, in 11 patients (32%) a frequency of the seizures was considerably decreased (by 50% and more as compared with the baseline level). Individual analysis of the seizures frequency showed that in patients treated with CMZ retard-form the maximal decrease of this frequency was observed for sleep seizures. A frequency of seizures decreased by 63% at night and by 34% in day hours.
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