Assessment of therapy outcomes in females with idiopathic generalized epilepsy

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Created On: 21/02/2022

This study was carried out to determine alteration in the prescription patterns to treat idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), on account of updation in therapeutic recommendations. Also, the epilepsy outcomes of valproate were compared with other antiseizure medications, with a focus on females having epilepsy.

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Key take away

For women with epilepsy, valproate alternatives can be considered as first-line antiseizure medications. In general, idiopathic generalized epilepsy people illustrated excellent clinical outcomes with the use of valproate or other broad-spectrum antiseizure medications as monotherapy.

Background

Method

The study incorporated 263 volunteers (97 men, 166 women). The records of IGE people treated were retrospectively inspected. On the basis of age and gender, the analysis of data was done for two subgroups. For each subgroup, seizure control with reference to the effectiveness of different antiseizure medicines and their combinations was evaluated.

Result

Of all the participants, about 72.6% remained seizure free. No difference in epilepsy control was noted between the genders (odds ratio 1.25). Compared to females, males were reported to use valproate more often. On the other hand, females were reported to use levetiracetam and lamotrigine more often when compared to males.

Notably, levetiracetam and lamotrigine were used particularly as monotherapy in women with epilepsy, and mostly as part of combination treatment in males. When utilized in monotherapy in adults, the valproate alternatives were reported to be as effective as valproate. In the pediatric subgroup, valproate remained the most commonly utilized antiseizure medication.

Conclusion

In daily clinical use, valproate use has dropped with the simultaneous elevated usage of alternative antiseizure medications. The reduction in valproate usage does not considerably worsen seizure outcomes and does not raise the risk of seizure recurrence in women with epilepsy. First-line medicines other than valproate seems to be useful for epilepsy management.