New Antiepileptic Topiramate

Overview

Over the past decade or two, basic pharmacological research made a number of new antiepilep-tics available to the medical public. As a result, quite a few new drugs have been added to theclassical five (barbiturates, hydantoins, benzodiazepines, valproates and carbamazepines), inparticular: vigabatrin, thiagabin, gabapentin, topiramate, lamotrigine, and felbamate, all ofwhich have already been in practical medical use. Some other medicaments such ralitolin,denzimol, remacemide, stiripentol have reached the stage of initial clinical trials. Among these,topiramate appears to be the most promising for the control of focal as well as secondarygeneralized seizures. Similarly as felbamate, topiramate, has the relatively widest range ofeffects. This is because both act as efficacious sodium channel blockers and potentiate GABAactivity on the receptors. Other antiepileptics offer a much narrower range of effects. We triedthe efficacy of topiramate in twelve until then pharmacoresistant epileptics with encouragingresults. Two of them exhibited a seizure rate drop of 90%, eight enjoyed a 50% drop and theremaining two remained unaffected. The therapy was polypragmatic employed under clinical,biochemical and EEG control.

Key words:
new antiepileptics - topiramate - mechanism of action.