Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Jan;77(1):101-3.
doi: 10.1136/jnnp.2005.064626.

The long term retention of levetiracetam in a large cohort of patients with epilepsy

C Depondt  1 , A W C Yuen, G S Bell, T Mitchell, M J Koepp, J S Duncan, J W Sander
Affiliations

The long term retention of levetiracetam in a large cohort of patients with epilepsy

C Depondt et al. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006 Jan.

Abstract

Levetiracetam (Lev) is a new antiepileptic drug with a distinct mechanism of action, shown in regulatory trials to be effective. These controlled trials do not always predict how useful a drug will be in day to day clinical practice. Retention rates can provide a better indication of efficacy and tolerability in everyday use. Patients attending a tertiary referral centre for epilepsy and who received Lev in the first 2 years of its marketing were assessed (n = 811) to determine continuation rates of treatment with this drug. At the last follow up, 65% of patients were still taking Lev, and the estimated 3 year retention rate was 58%. In total, 11% attained seizure freedom of at least 6 months. Patients taking greater numbers of concurrent antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) were more likely to discontinue Lev, and those reaching higher maximum daily dosages were less likely to discontinue Lev. The retention rate for Lev compares favourably with that of other new AEDs.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: our department has received research and travel grants from UCB Pharma, the manufacturer of levetiracetam. M J Koepp, J S Duncan and J W Sander have received honoraria for speaking at meetings sponsored by UCB. J W Sander was a paid member of an advisory panel to UCB.

References

    1. Klitgaard H, Matagne A, Gobert J.et al Evidence for a unique profile of levetiracetam in rodent models of seizures and epilepsy. Eur J Pharmacol 1998353191–206. - PubMed
    1. Lynch B A, Lambeng N, Nocka K.et al The synaptic vesicle protein SV2A is the binding site for the antiepileptic drug levetiracetam. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 20041019861–9866. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Walker M C, Sander J W. The impact of new antiepileptic drugs on the prognosis of epilepsy: seizure freedom should be the ultimate goal. Neurology 199646912–914. - PubMed
    1. Walker M C, Sander J W. Developments in antiepileptic drug therapy. Curr Opin Neurol 19947131–139. - PubMed
    1. Kaplan E L, Meier P. Nonparametric estimation from incomplete observations. J Am Stat Ass 195853457–481.

Publication types