Carbamazepine therapy in neuropsychiatric patients

We reviewed the charts of 106 patients treated with carbamazepine. Age, sex, race, seizure type, seizure focus, age at onset, duration of epileptic illness, reasons for discontinuing treatment, other medications, and response to treatment of seizures, psychiatric symptoms, and behavioral symptoms were recorded. Statistical analysis was done to determine clinical factors influencing response to carbamazepine. Increasing duration of epileptic illness leads to a decreased response to carbamazepine, which controls both seizure and behavioral symptoms effectively; concurrent medication decreases behavioral symptom control without affecting the control of the seizures. We found a strongly negative correlation between duration of seizures and improvement of psychiatric symptoms with carbamazepine therapy. We provide a clinical profile of the carbamazepine responder to guide clinicians in their use of this drug.