The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7271 p536
18 October 2003

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International Epilepsy Congress (more)

Add-on therapy cuts epilepsy seizures

Adding levetiracetam (Keppra) to therapy significantly increases the number of seizure-free days in difficult-to-treat epilepsy, researchers report.

They studied the effect of levetiracetam in a meta-analysis of three randomised controlled trials involving 904 patients with severe epilepsy. On average, patients were having two seizures a week at baseline.

The results showed a significant benefit for adding levetiracetam to therapy. Compared with placebo, the gain in number of seizure-free days was 3.67 days per quarter for 1g levetiracetam a day, 4.74 days per quarter for a 2 g daily dose and 5.04 days per quarter for a 3g daily dose.

The results were presented at the International Epilepsy Congress in Lisbon on 13 October.