For new-onset epilepsy, there's not yet strong enough evidence for the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Epilepsy Society (AES) to recommend third-generation antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in their new treatment guidelines.
But for treatment-resistant epilepsy, several recently approved AEDs may be winners.
"The update was prompted by the explosion of new antiepileptic drugs that have been approved since the time of the first guideline and the overwhelming amount of information available on each one," Jacqueline French, MD, of the New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, told MedPage Today.
Issued jointly by the two organizations and published online in Neurology, the updated guidance for new-onset and treatment-resistant epilepsy replace ones in effect since 2004. The FDA has approved six third-generation AEDs that were included in this review since that time -- eslicarbazepine (Aptiom), ezogabine (Potiga, which has been discontinued), lacosamide (Vimpat), perampanel (Fycompa), pregabalin (Lyrica), and rufinamide (Banzel) -- and two older AEDs for certain types of epileptic disorders, clobazam (Onfi) and vigabatrin (Sabril).