Choice of Antiepileptic Drugs in Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsy: UAE Experience

We retrospectively reviewed the electroencephalogram (EEG) reports of patients at our EEG lab from the years 2005-2010 to identify patients referred from the epilepsy clinic, with a confirmed diagnosis of idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) by EEG criteria. We sought to report our experience in UAE of how often patients with IGE are placed on nonspecific antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) before being evaluated at an epilepsy referral clinic. 109 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of IGE based on EEG criteria were identified. When initially seen, 32.11% were taking a broad-spectrum (specific) AED only, 25.69% were taking a narrow-spectrum (nonspecific) AED, and 15.59% were placed on various combinations. Of the total patients who were receiving nonspecific AEDs, 35.71% were seizure-free and 64.28% were poorly controlled accounting for "pseudointractability status." When converted to broad-spectrum (specific) AEDs, 50% became well controlled. Furthermore, 26.6% of patients, who were previously on no AED prior to the clinic visit, became well controlled once placed on specific AED.