COLOR-VISION DEFICIENCIES AND ENHANCED SE NSITIVITY TO GLARE IN EPILEPTIC PATIENTS TREATED WITH CARBAMAZEPINE AND PHENYTOIN - OCULAR SIDE-EFFECTS OF ANTIEPILEPTIC DRUG

Advanced psychophysical tests, performed in 42 epileptic patients, sho w that the antiepileptic drugs phenytoin and carbamazepine can specifi cally affect the retinal function, while Valproic Acid and the epilept ic seizures do not. The Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue and Panel D-15 desa ture tests revealed an accumulation of errors along the tritan/tetarta n axis (blue colour vision deficiences) and a high total error score. The same defect was shown by measurement of the spectral sensitivity f unctions. The results obtained for mesopic vision and especially glare sensitivity measured by nyktometry were markedly affected in these pa tients compared to a normal population. The enhanced sensitivity to gl are is mainly the only one symptom complained by the patient. We propo se a screening method for early detection of phenytoin- and carbamazep ine-induced neurotoxicity. The literature of ocular side effects of an ticonvulsant drugs is carefully reviewed.