Seizure medications and their side effects

Abstract

In their article, "Neuropsychological and Neurophysiologic Effects of Carbamazepine and Levetiracetam," Dr. Meador and his colleagues describe the results of a detailed study designed to look at how antiseizure medications affect a person's thinking. 1 They looked at two medications, carbamazepine (the trade name is Tegretol or Carbatrol) and levetiracetam (the trade name is Keppra). The reason for the study was simple: to determine which medicine causes fewer problems with memory, attention, clarity of thinking, and speed of thinking. Dr. Meador asked 28 people to volunteer to take both medications. These were healthy people. In other words, they did not have neurologic or psychological problems that might cause problems with thinking. The volunteers could not be using drugs or prescribed medications that could affect the brain. Because alcohol can cause trouble with thinking clearly or quickly, the volunteers could not drink any kind of alcohol for 3 days before testing. Each person had memory and cognitive testing (the neuropsychological testing) six times. There were two tests before the person had taken any medication. When they had been on one medicine for 8 weeks, the testing was repeated to see how the person's scores changed when they were on medication vs off. The medication was then stopped and allowed to "wash out" of the system. During the 4-week "washout," memory testing was repeated. After this, the volunteer started the second medication. Again, at the end of 8 weeks of taking the medication, the memory testing was done. The medicine was again allowed to wash out, at which point the testing was done for the final time. During the study, the medication tablets were all made to look the same. This way, the volunteers did not know which medication they were taking. The same was true for the doctors who were doing the memory testing: they did not know which medication the person was taking at that time. This kind of study is called "double-blind." It means that neither the doctors nor the volunteers knew which medicine they were taking. The reason to do studies in this

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