Effect of antiepileptic drugs on the postictal state. A critical overview

Although postictal events contribute to seizure severity and thus affect quality of life, the effect of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on the postictal state is not well known. This review assesses the available evidence from randomized controlled trials on the effect of AEDs on postictal events. The instruments used in AED trials include postictal items of The Liverpool Seizure Severity Scale (LSSS) and Seizure Severity Scale (SSQ) and postictal recovery of electroencephalography (EEG) background activity. The effect of AEDs on postictal components of LSSS, if documented separately or at all, was either too small to be clinically significant (for lamotrigine) or not different from that of controls (topiramate, valproate). However, lacosamide showed improvement on the SSQ over placebo, and levetiracetam was associated with a speedier postictal recovery of EEG background activity compared with placebo. Although measuring the effect of AEDs on postictal state is of great clinical interest, the limited evidence found in this review suggests that further work is needed to evaluate current instruments used to assess AED-associated changes in postictal events.