While several newer AEDs have study data that support monotherapy usage, most possess FDA indications for adjunctive treatment of partial onset seizures, leading to their initial (and often persistent) clinical use as adjunctive polytherapy for patients with refractory epilepsy. This review considers a practical approach to the appropriate role for polytherapy in epilepsy, presents the evidence...

PURPOSE Adverse effects of anti epileptic drugs (AEDs) can significantly affect the life of people with epilepsy. We used a register to determine if polytherapy with AED has more adverse effects than monotherapy. METHODS We established a register for people with epilepsy (www.UKAED.info). Participants were requested to complete the Liverpool Adverse Event Profile (LAEP) to quantify adverse ef...

PURPOSE This study was undertaken to (1) measure the frequency of AED monotherapy or polytherapy during pregnancy and AED discontinuation prior to pregnancy in a cohort of women with treated epilepsy; and (2) describe the frequency of major congenital malformations according to maternal use of AED during pregnancy. METHODS A cohort of epileptic pregnant women was identified within the Quebec ...

The aim of this study is to determine the antipsychotic prescribing pattern and the prevalence of concurrent anticholinergic prescribing in a psychiatric referral hospital. A retrospective audit of prescriptions issued for outpatients was carried out at the Psychiatric Hospital, the only facility that provides psychiatric services for both inpatients and outpatients in the Kingdom of Bahrain. A...

OBJECTIVES Second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs), in conjunction with other psychotropic medications, are increasingly used to treat psychiatric disorders in pregnancy. The few available studies investigating the reproductive safety of SGAs did not reach conclusive results, and none have compared monotherapy with polytherapy involving other psychotropic medications. DESIGN Descriptive cohor...

INTRODUCTION Guidelines for the treatment of psychoses recommend antipsychotic monotherapy. However, the rate of antipsychotic polytherapy has increased over the last decade, reaching up to 60% in some settings. Studies evaluating the costs and impact of antipsychotic polytherapy in the health system are scarce. OBJECTIVE To estimate the costs of antipsychotic polytherapy and its impact on pu...

Monotherapy has been promoted as the ideal in epilepsy treatment because of reduced side effects, absence of drug interactions, better compliance, lower cost and, in many cases, improved seizure control compared to polytherapy. The question of monotherapy vs. polytherapy has assumed increasing importance with the availability of multiple new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), initially tested as add-o...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of malformations among infants born to women who had taken lamotrigine or carbamazepine as part of polytherapy during the first trimester of pregnancy. DESIGN A cohort of women enrolled during pregnancy in the North American AED (Antiepileptic Drug) Pregnancy Registry between February 1, 1997, and June 1, 2010. Information on AED use and demographic charac...