Long-term treatment with oxcarbazepine in clinical practice

Oxcarbazepine (up to 1800 mg daily orally) was given for 12 months to 61 adult epileptic patients in clinical practice, as monotherapy (n=52) or adjunctive therapy (n=9). Patients on monotherapy became seizure-free (76.9%) or experienced > or = 75% seizure rate reduction, with two exceptions. In the adjunctive therapy group, one patient became seizure-free and two experienced a 50-75% seizure rate reduction. These seizure-free rates are higher than those reported in the literature. The drug was well tolerated; only two patients withdrew because of intolerance (3.3%). Long-term data is essential when evaluating a drug for lifelong treatment. This study contributes to the growing body of 12-month evidence on oxcarbazepine.