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Improved quality of life in patients with partial seizures after conversion to oxcarbazepine monotherapy
Rajesh C Sachdeo1, John R Gates, Carl W Bazil
1Princeton Medical Center, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. drsachdeo@gmail.com <drsachdeo@gmail.com>
Objective:
Quality of life (QOL) was assessed in patients who switched to oxcarbazepine monotherapy because of the lack of efficacy or poor tolerability of their current antiepileptic drug (AED).
Method:
This open-label, single-arm study consisted of patients aged 12 >or= years with partial onset seizures. Oxcarbazepine (8-10mg/kg/day for children, 600 mg/day for adults) was titrated up over 4 weeks while the existing AED was tapered off. QOL was evaluated at baseline and end of study (Week 16) using the validated-in-epilepsy QOLIE-31 questionnaire.
Results:
For all patients who completed the QOLIE-31 at baseline and completion, a statistically significant improvement was noted for both the composite and multi-item subscale QOL scores (P<0.05 vs baseline). Statistically significant mean percentage improvements of >or=10% from baseline (range=10.8-50.1%) were also noted. Significant improvements were seen in health-related QOL for patients who experienced seizure freedom or >or=50% reductions in seizure frequency with oxcarbazepine monotherapy.
Conclusions:
Patients with partial seizures who switched to oxcarbazepine monotherapy showed statistically significant, clinically relevant improvements in QOL.
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