Oxcarbazepine

Oxcarbazepine is one of the recently introduced anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) in the US. This drug has demonstrated efficacy as adjunctive therapy in adults and children, and as monotherapy in adults for the treatment of seizures of partial onset. There is also convincing evidence of its efficacy in patients with newly diagnosed and refractory trigeminal neuralgia. In addition, the initial efficacy results of oxcarbazepine in other neuropathic pain conditions and in bipolar disorders are encouraging. In this review, recommendations on the optimal clinical use of oxcarbazepine are given based on its pharmacokinetic profile, efficacy and tolerability in those various conditions.