Thursday, December 18, 2014

Overdoses with new generation anticonvulsants

From a recently published observational study:

There were 116 gabapentin, 67 lamotrigine, 15 levetiracetam, 15 tiagabine, 56 topiramate, 23 pregabalin, and 55 oxcarbazepine cases. Overdose of newer anticonvulsants frequently results in altered mental status. Seizures may be more common with tiagabine, lamotrigine, and oxcarbazepine. There was one death reported from intentional overdose of topiramate..the risk of a more severe outcome score was significantly increased with tiagabine relative to other drugs (β = 2.8, p = 0.001). Lamotrigine ranked highest in terms of toxicity (HT = 1.66) and number of interventions performed (HI = 1.17), and levetiracetam the lowest (HT = 0.98; HI = 0.88). We could not identify a dose-effect in these data which likely reflects the limitations of self-reported doses. Despite limitations of these data, the risk of more severe outcome scores appear to be higher with tiagabine overdose while lamotrigine overdose appears to result in more reported signs, symptoms, and interventions.

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