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Safety aspects of antiepileptic drugs—focus on pharmacovigilance
Author(s) -
Landmark Cecilie Johannessen,
Johannessen Svein I.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.023
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1099-1557
pISSN - 1053-8569
DOI - 10.1002/pds.2269
Subject(s) - pharmacovigilance , medicine , medical prescription , pharmacoepidemiology , epilepsy , drug , intensive care medicine , drug reaction , pharmacology , psychiatry
Purpose Most patients with epilepsy are dependent on a life‐long pharmacological treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). AEDs include a wide range of substances that possess large pharmacological variability and are often susceptible to drug interactions and adverse drug reactions (ADRs). AEDs are increasingly used in other neurological and psychiatric disorders, and new patient groups are exposed to these drugs. The aim of the present review is to focus upon how pharmacovigilance contributes to improved safety of AEDs. Methods The present article is a review based on searches in Pubmed on articles from the last 15 years. Strengths and challenges regarding these aspects will be highlighted and discussed. Results The concept of pharmacovigilance includes various methods of monitoring of large patient populations with registries and databases of surveillance of ADRs and risk of suicide and sudden unexpected death, drug utilization and prescription patterns, pregnancy and birth registries and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) databases for studies on pharmacological variability of AEDs in large sample sizes. Challenges for existing reporting systems and databases include differences in outcome measures and thus international comparison. Conclusion Continuous focus on safety aspects of AEDs and the importance of the implementation of pharmacovigilance contribute to further optimized therapy on a large scale and for the individual patient. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.