Oxcarbazepine: Anticonvulsant profile and safety

Oxcarbazepine is a molecule chemically related to carbamazepine that shares most of the pharmacological and therapeutic effects of carbamazepine while displaying a more favorable profile regarding tolerability and drug-drug i nteractions. in contrast to carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine is metabolized thr ough cytochrome P450-independent reductases, and is thus devoid of inductiv e effects on hepatic oxidative metabolism. Oxcarbazepine has been shown to be useful both as monotherapy and adjunctive therapy in patients with parti al seizures with or without secondary generalization. The drug has been doc umented as safe and effective in adults as well as children aged 4-16 years . Additional data suggests that oxcarbazepine might improve cognition and p sychomotor performance and might increase alertness, in contrast to the cog nition/psychomotor impairment observed with some other antiepileptic drugs. Both the pharmacokinetic advantages over other anticonvulsant drugs and th e lack of pharmacological interactions with oxcarbazepine may point to this drug as a first-line treatment for the management of partial and tonic-clo nic epilepsy. (C) 2001 Prous Science. All rights reserved.