Epilepsy
Luana Veras
Aden Lee
Introduction
The experiment, created by a research team led by Jing-Jane Tsai, was a controlled study of checking the safety and efficacy of using a specific antiepileptic drug (AED) known as adjunctive levetiracetam (LEV) compared to other AEDs.
Methods
This experiment used adjunctive levetiracetam (LEV) to view its efficiency and safety. The experiment began by obtaining the subjects of ninety-four patients ranging through the ages of 16-60 years with refractory partial seizures. Each patient received LEV or placebo for the duration of 14 weeks. The patients would first take 500 mg twice daily and then after 2 weeks, they would increase this variable to 1000 mg twice daily. After this, results would be recorded for 12 more weeks and then would later enter a 4-week phase of discontinuing the antiepileptic drug (AED).
Results and Discussion
The results started with one hundred and fourteen patients. It was then shortened to 94 eligible patients, and then only 90 that finished the study. It showed that of the 90 patients doing the trial, 43 out of the 44 Levetiracetam-treated patients and 45 of the 46 placebo patients switched to open label LEV (Levetiracetam) therapy. However, more female patients were included in the LEV group compared to the placebo group. Also, fewer LEV patients had a history of withdrawal seizures, status epilepticus, and documentation of spike or spike-waves in the EEG, and few unknown causes of epilepsy (27.7% (LEV) vs. 42.6% (placebo)). Most of the patients decided to convert to the long-term open label LEV therapy, a large number of 88 out of 90.
The disadvantages of this paper is how small the testing was. It only tested 90 people and a much bigger test could get much more accurate results. However, the advantage of this trial was that the result was clear, and that it showed an overwhelming majority wanted to convert to LEV therapy. Further research can improve the results of the paper by just changing it to a much larger testing field. Also testing more people would truly prove how effective Levetiracetam is.
Citation
Jing-Jane Tsai. (2006). Efficacy and Safety of Levetiracetam (up to 2000 mg/day) in Taiwanese Patients with Refractory Partial Seizures: A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study. Retrieved from October 11, 2021, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00372.x
