Challenging epilepsy with antiepileptic pharmacotherapy in a tertiary teaching hospital in Sri Lanka

The goal of antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy is to achieve a seizure-free state and eliminate the medical and psychosocial risks of recurrent seizures. Burden of epilepsy on the economy of a country may be largely due to the expenditure on AEDs. The adverse effects may influence the compliance to AEDs and effective control of epilepsy. We determined the pattern of AED use, the degree of epileptic control achieved and the adverse effects experienced by the epileptics in a Tertiary Teaching Hospital in Sri Lanka. Carbamazepine was found to be the most frequently used AED. Monotherapy was used on 70.8% of subjects. 86.27% of the study sample had achieved effective control of epilepsy with a 50% or more reduction in seizure frequency. Of them 72.64% were on monotherapy and they were either on carbamazepine, sodium valproate, phenytoin sodium or phenobarbitone. None of the new AEDs were prescribed to these patients. 50.9% on monotherapy and 51.5% on polytherapy reported adverse effects. Somnolence followed by headache was found to be the most frequently reported adverse effects by those on monotherapy and polytherapy both. This study shows that most epileptics can be effectively managed with the conventional AEDs with clinical monitoring.