Unveiling the recent trends: Therapeutic drug monitoring of antiepileptic drugs in Western India’s Tertiary Care Hospital
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Purpose/Aim: Primary goal of epilepsy management is to completely eradicate the disease without causing much adverse effects. However, physicians are not achieving this despite availability of antiseizure medicines and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) services. The objective was to evaluate 3 years' time trend of antiseizure medications (ASMs) use and primarily compare TDM requisitions for older versus newer ASMs. Materials and Methods: -test, Chi-square test for trend, and trendline were plotted to establish trend. Results: < 0.05) with trend for polytherapy. The minimum number of ASMs used in polytherapy was two, prescribed to 43.24% of people living with epilepsy. Of the two ASMs combined, the most common combination was of phenytoin and levetiracetam, prescribed to 31.25% of patients receiving two ASMs. Maximum number of ASMs prescribed to patients were five and seen in 2/74 of patients receiving polytherapy. Eighteen percent of referrals cited therapeutic failures with four adverse drug reactions (ADRs) documented at the therapeutic level. Conclusion: TTA of ASMs showed that in between 2019 and 2021, there was rising trend for use of newer ASMs. Overall, TDM requisitions for older drugs were more in number than newer drugs. The majority were treated with >1 ASMs, and seizure control was satisfactory with few ADRs documented.
Authors: Shakeeb Dhorajiwala, Mahesh Belhekar, Neeraj Jain, Sangeeta Ravat
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4414393738