Background Monotherapy is the goal for pharmacological treatment of epilepsy. Well-controlled trials have established the efficacy of some of the newer antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) as monotherapy.
Objective To review clinical data and expert opinions pertinent to the evaluation of most of the newer AEDs as monotherapy for epilepsy.
Data Sources The MEDLINE database was searched for clinical trials using newer AEDs. Reference sections of review articles were manually searched to identify relevant studies not retrieved in MEDLINE.
Study Selection The resulting list of references was manually reviewed to identify monotherapy studies.
Results Lamotrigine and oxcarbazepine demonstrated efficacy in randomized active-control trials in patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy and in substitution trials in patients refractory to conventional AEDs.
Conclusion Lamotrigine and oxcarbazepine are as effective as conventional AEDs at controlling partial seizures and are better tolerated.
