BACKGROUND Optimal anti-epileptic drug (AED) treatment maximises therapeutic response and minimises adverse effects (AEs). Key to therapeutic AED treatment is adherence. Non-adherence is often related to severity of AEs. Frequently, patients do not spontaneously report, and clinicians do not specifically query, critical AEs that lead to non-adherence, including sexual dysfunction. Sexual dysfun...

Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is a chromosome disorder (4p-syndrome) which is characterized by craniofacial features and epileptic seizures. Here, we report a case of WHS with West syndrome, in whom the seizures were refractory to several antiepileptic drugs but were responsive to the addition of lamotrigine. The patient had epileptic spasms at age seven months. The interictal electroencephalo...

Background: Women with epilepsy face difficult choices whether to continue antiepileptic drug treatment during pregnancy, as uncontrolled seizures carry great risk mother and fetus but continuing may have adverse effects on baby’s development. This study aimed at evaluating entry into developing brain. Methods: Anaesthetised pregna...

BACKGROUND Bipolar disorder is associated with dysfunction in prefrontal and limbic areas implicated in emotional processing. AIMS To explore whether lamotrigine monotherapy may exert its action by improving the function of the neural network involved in emotional processing. METHOD We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine changes in brain activation during a sad facial affe...

We have developed a simple and rapid high performance liquid chromatographic technique to determine lamotrigine concentrations in epileptic patients and validated it using external quality control material. The method has been used to monitor the lamotrigine concentration in 70 specimens from 61 patients. Only 50% of the specimens had concentrations within the proposed target range of 1 mg/L to...

Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) is an uncommon, idiosyncratic, potentially fatal dermatologic emergency affecting skin and mucous membranes. It characterized clinically by blistering widespread exfoliation, pathologically apoptosis of keratinocytes epidermal necrosis. Drugs are one the most common causative agents. The management ranges from nutritional support, care denuded mucosa to intraven...

Cutaneous rash is one of the commonest adverse events associated with lamotrigine. We assessed whether the risk is increased in patients receiving concomitant valproate therapy in a population of 103 adult patients with intractable epilepsy, who had lamotrigine added to their treatment. Of the 33 patients taking valproate, 10 (30%) developed a rash, whilst of the 70 not taking valproate, only 6...

Lamotrigine is an antiepileptic drug used for the treatment of epilepsy, bipolar disorder and numerous off-label uses. The development of rash significantly affects its use. The most concerning of these adverse reactions is Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis. We performed a systematic review of randomized controlled trials using lamotrigine as a monotherapy to quantify the inci...

Startle-induced seizures are reflex seizures precipitated by a sudden, surprising stimulus, usually auditory. Aetiologies, electroencephalographic correlates, and brain structural abnormalities are variable. Because of the frequent tonic component at onset, falling is a major clinical problem. There is no established drug of choice, and therapy is often unsatisfactory. Adjunctive lamotrigine th...

Lamotrigine is used in the treatment of CNS disorders, particularly epilepsy; pain; oedema; multiple sclerosis and psychiatric indications including bipolar disorder. Lamotrigine belongs to biopharmaceutical classification systems, BCS class II (Low solubility & High permeability). In addition, it requires immediate therapeutic action hence the main objective of this study is to improve the sol...