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Influence of major antiepileptic drugs on neuropsychological function: Results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled withdrawal study of seizure-free epilepsy patients on monotherapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2007

ERIK HESSEN ,
MORTEN I. LOSSIUS ,
IVAR REINVANG  and
LEIF GJERSTAD
ERIK HESSEN
Affiliation:
Helse Øst Health Services Research Centre, and Department of Neurology, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
MORTEN I. LOSSIUS
Affiliation:
Helse Øst Health Services Research Centre, and Department of Neurology, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway National Center for Epilepsy, Rikshospitalet, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
IVAR REINVANG
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
LEIF GJERSTAD
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Rikshospitalet and Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess cognitive effects of anticonvulsants in a way that would yield results that are most directly applicable to epilepsy populations. This was done with a placebo-controlled, prospective, randomized, double-blind, parallel group study of anticonvulsant withdrawal in a population of subjects taking a single anticonvulsant with completely controlled seizures. Outcomes of this study on cognitive measures from the California Computerized Assessment Package have recently been reported. To aid comparison with results of prior studies, we report outcomes here on several more standard measures of neuropsychological function. The major findings were that, in subjects with therapeutic drug levels at baseline, drug withdrawal was associated with significant improvement in performance on the Controlled Oral Word Association Test and the Stroop Color–Word Interference Test. Comparable results were achieved in the subgroup taking carbamazepine. (JINS, 2007, 13, 393–400.)

Keywords

Antiepileptic drugsAEDsNeuropsychological side effectsCognitive side effectsCarbamazepine
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , May 2007 , pp. 393 - 400
Copyright
© 2007 The International Neuropsychological Society

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