Lamotrigine in the Epilepsy Therapy at the Sarajevo Neurology Clinic

Introduction: New antiepileptic drugs have opened a new era of therapy in the epilepsy treatment. The aim of this paper is to establish a therapeutic effect of the new antiepileptic (AE) as a supplement therapy in the treatment of those types of epilepsy which proved to be resistant to previously used therapy, with a special emphasis on lamotrigine. Aim: To prove the efficacy of new antiepileptics as an additional therapy in treating those forms of epileptic seizures which had proved resistant to previously used therapy. Material and methods: The research was undertaken at the Sarajevo Neurology Clinic. It included 60 epileptic patients (30 patients with the old antiepileptic therapy, 30 with the new antiepileptics as add on). All patients had partial epileptic fits with secondary generalizations. Results: The male female ratio in both groups was the same 16M:14F. 33% of patients were under 20, mean age was 27.2 years. The most frequent antiepileptic therapy was the combination of carbamazepine and lamotrigine in 67% of patients in the group with the new AE, while 90% of patients in the group with the old AE received carbamazepine. Conclusion: New antiepileptics have proven to be efficient as a supplement therapy in the treatment of previously resistant epileptic fits. The frequency of fits was reduced in 66.7% of patients, and in 16.7% of patients the fits were alleviated. The new AE did not significantly influence the psychological traits of patients; in all patients an improved quality of life was noted after introducing the new lamotrigine to the therapy.