Adjunctive therapy with oxcarbazepine in children with partial seizures

Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of oxcarbazepine (OXC) as adjunctive therapy in children with inadequately controlled partial seizures on one or two concomitant antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Background: OXC has shown antiepileptic activity in several comparative monotherapy trials in newly diagnosed patients with epilepsy, and in a placebo-controlled monotherapy trial in hospitalized patients evaluated for epilepsy surgery. Design: A total of 267 patients were evaluated in a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled trial consisting of three phases: 1) a 56-day baseline phase (patients maintained on their current AEDs); 2) a 112-day double-blind treatment phase (patients received either OXC 30-46 mg/kg/day orally or placebo); and 3) an open-label extension phase. Data are reported only from the double-blind treatment phase; the open-label extension phase is ongoing. Methods: Children (3 to 17 years old) with inadequately controlled partial seizures (simple, complex, and partial seizures evolving to secondarily generalized seizures) were enrolled. Results: Patients treated with OXC experienced a significantly greater median percent reduction from baseline in partial seizure frequency than patients treated with placebo (p = 0.0001; 35% versus 9%, respectively). Forty-one percent of patients treated with OXC experienced a greater than or equal to 50% reduction from baseline in partial seizure frequency per 28 days compared with 22% of patients treated with placebo (p = 0.0005). Ninety-one percent of the group treated with OXC and 82% of the group treated with placebo reported greater than or equal to 1 adverse event; vomiting, somnolence, dizziness, and nausea occurred more frequently (twofold or greater) in the group treated with OXC. Conclusion: OXC adjunctive therapy administered in a dose range of 6 to 51 mg/kg/day (median 31.4 mg/kg/day) is safe, effective, and well tolerated in children with partial seizures.