Major Finding: Of patients who stopped taking AEDs, 45% cited side effects as a reason; those taking two or more AEDs were less likely to be satisfied with the side effects than were those taking one AED.
Data Source: National Survey of Epilepsy, Comorbidities, and Health of 7,500 epilepsy patients and 2,500 controls.
Disclosures: The presenter is an employee of Ortho-McNeil Janssen Scientific Affairs LLC, which supported the study.
TORONTO – About 40% of epilepsy patients are bothered by side effects of their antiepileptic drugs, based on data from a survey of adults with epilepsy.
Information on the tolerability of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and the reasons for discontinuing treatment are limited, said George J. Wan, Ph.D., in a poster presentation.
To examine drug tolerability and treatment satisfaction, Dr. Wan, of Ortho-McNeil Janssen Scientific Affairs LLC, and his colleagues reviewed data from the National Survey of Epilepsy, Comorbidities, and Health Outcomes (EPIC), a large survey conducted in the United States in 2009 that included 7,500 epilepsy patients and 2,500 controls.
The researchers evaluated responses from 5,117 self-reporting epilepsy patients. A total of 2,395 respondents reported being formally diagnosed with epilepsy or a seizure disorder; of those, 1,415 (59%) were taking antiepilepsy drugs at the time of the survey. About 60% of the respondents reported taking one AED, 35% reported taking two or three, and 5% reported taking four or more. The respondents had been taking AEDs for an average of 115 months.
A total of 772 respondents said that they were “not at all” bothered by side effects from AEDs during the 4 weeks leading up to the survey. But 519 respondents reported some degree of bother: 22% were mildly bothered; 12%, moderately bothered; 5%, markedly bothered; and 1%, extremely bothered.
The researchers did not identify specific side effects.
Overall, 72% of the respondents said they were either “somewhat satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their current AED regimens. But a total of 304 respondents said that they had discontinued their medications. Of those, 50% discontinued on their doctor's advice; 45% discontinued because of side effects; 30%, because of improvement in seizures or the disappearance of seizures; and 21%, because of inadequate seizure control. Some respondents indicated more than one reason for discontinuing their AEDs, the researchers noted.
In addition, after controlling for baseline characteristics and lifetime seizures, patients who were taking two or more AEDs were significantly less likely to be satisfied with the side effects compared with those who were taking one AED, the researchers reported.
The study was limited by the use of self-reports, but the results confirm that drug-related side effects remain a significant problem for epilepsy patients and highlight the need to develop more tolerable treatments, the researchers said, adding that “further research is needed to quantify the impact of AED treatment on other patient-reported outcomes, including health status.”