[Pharmacotherapy of epilepsy--current problems and controversies]

Current trends and controversies in the antiepileptic drug therapy are reviewed from a clinical view. The usefulness of prophylactic therapy of febrile seizures and posttraumatic seizures or posttraumatic epilepsy is compromised by difficulties in the management of the patients especially by noncompliance. Previously untreated epilepsies can be treated successfully in 70--80% of the patients. Phenytoin or carbamazepine are equally effective for generalized tonic-clonic seizures of focal seizures, while absence seizures are controlled by ethosuximide or valproic acid. Only when the epilepsy is uncontrolled despite high plasma concentrations which cannot be raised because of side effects, a second drug should be given. A second drug is successful in about one out of six patients with focal epilepsy. Phenytoin, carbamazepine, phenobarbital and primidone seem to be equally effective for these drug-resistant cases. Status epilepticus can be treated with intravenous diazepam or phenytoin and, if necessary, with an infusion of phenytoin. Rectal diazepam is useful for acute pediatric therapy. Drugs of second choice are clonazepam, phenobarbital, lidocaine, and clomethiazole. In the pregnant epileptic patient a drop in the plasma concentration of antiepileptic drugs mainly through non-compliance and seizure provocation through sleep deprivation are major sources for the deterioration of epilepsies during pregnancy. The "fetal antiepileptic drug syndrome", malformations and an increased risk for epilepsy in the child are discussed as an interaction of parental epilepsy and drug-exposure during pregnancy. Finally, the interpretation of abnormal clinical chemistry data is reviewed. Disorders of the liver, bone, thyroid gland and blood are rarely seen in treated epileptic patients usually when specific risk factors are present. The over-interpretation of laboratory abnormalities e.g. an isolated increase of gamma-GT may lead to iatrogenic deterioration of epilepsy when the effective dose of the drug is reduced for unfounded fear of hepatic toxicity.