Adverse cognitive effects of antiepileptic pharmacotherapy: Each additional drug matters

摘要: The study was set up to evaluate the impact of total drug load antiepileptic pharmacotherapy on cognition. Retrospective analyses were based 834 patients with epilepsy who underwent a brief routine assessment executive function and verbal memory (EpiTrack Plus) at our department. quantified in two ways: (1) number concurrent drugs (AEDs) (2) according defined daily dose (DDD) provided by World Health Organization. cognitive measures showed higher inverse correlations AEDs (executive function: r=-0.35, p<0.001; memory: r=-0.22, p<0.001) than DDD r=-0.27, r=-0.17, p<0.001). Reanalysis statistical control for disease severity hardly changed aforementioned results. With each additional polytherapy, we observed significantly lower performance function. In this regard an explorative approach revealed that regimens combining favorable profiles associated performance. Correlations between indicators indices low: altogether explaining only 9% variance load. findings demonstrate considerable adverse effect cognition, especially functions. Simply counting may be sufficient as rough estimate risk side effects. However, combination attenuate negative