Studies On Drug Use Pattern of Anti-Epileptic Drugs In A Tertiary Care Rural Teaching Hospital

Many new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have become available in recent years. Investigations of prescription patterns and exposure of AEDs to different patient groups are important regarding drug safety aspects. To evaluate the drug use pattern of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and other medications in a representative population attending tertiary care rural teaching hospital. Methodology: The prospective observational study was conducted during a period of 6 months at tertiary care hospitals at Palakkad. This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee. Patient data collection forms were prepared based on the study objectives. The data collection forms are filled which included all the demographic and relevant clinical information like Name, age, gender, marital status, epilepsy diagnosis, antiepileptic medications, duration of therapy etc. 30% (n=67) of patients were prescribed with combination of two drug. Sodium valproate and levetiracetam is the most frequently used (n=18, 8.07%) followed by Sodium valproate and clobazam (n=11, 4.93%). In this study two drug combinations have a better production against epileptic patients. In our study concluded that the combination therapy may seem costlier than monotherapy in the short term, but when used appropriately, it causes significant savings: lower treatment failure rate, lower case-fatality ratios, and fewer side-effects than monotherapy, slower development of resistance and consequently, less money needed for the development of new drugs.