Cognitive Functions in Epileptic Patients on Lamotrigine and Other Antiepileptic Drugs

Background and purpose: Anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) can affect cognitive functions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of lamotrigine (LT) on cognitive functions of patients with epilepsy. Materials and methods: A study with retrospective cohort design was carried out in which we assessed cognitive functions of 20 IGE patients attending Sari Bu Ali Hospital, and 12 healthy subjects. The control group was matched for age, sex, and educational level. Standardized neuropsychological tests were used to evaluate cognitive functions. The study was analyzed applying one-way ANOVA and Tukey Test in SPSS. Results: Compared with the control group, LT group showed poor performance in Stroop test and verbal fluency test-semantic test (P<0.05). The group on other drugs were also found to have poor performance in verbal fluency test (phonetic and semantic), forward digit span task, and Stroop test compared with those of the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Compared with LT, other AEDs had more adverse effects on cognitive functions which could be due to their effect on channels and release changing stimulatory neurotransmitters.