AbstractAim: The objective was to evaluate the prescription pattern of Antiepileptic drugs and to evaluate how rational isthe prescription for various epilepsies.Methods: The present study was conducted in the Department of Pharmacology, Darbhanga Medical College,LaheriasaraiDarbhanga. Adult outpatients who have been diagnosed to have epilepsy were identified andprescribing pattern was studied. Totally 100 prescriptions were collected randomly over a period of 6 months.Patients demographic details, clinical diagnosis, type of epilepsy, type of AED used, drug dose and frequencywere recorded. Average number of drugs per prescriptions was calculated. Prescription of all patients was enteredin a preformed proforma and was analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: In the present study, out of 100 patients 60 patients were male and 40 patients were females. Epilepsywas more commonly seen in the patients of age group of 20-40 years. The analysis of the type of seizure showedthat the most common type was partial seizures (64%) and the least common type was absence seizures (3%).Regarding the mode of therapy, majority of the patients were treated with monotherapy (82%). Polytherapy wasgiven for 18% of the study population. The analysis of prescriptions showed that the most commonly prescribeddrug was carbamazepine (36%) followed by valproate (24%) and levetiracetam (23%). The other drugs prescribedwere phenytoin (5%), phenobarbitone (6%), benzodiazepines (4%). The least commonly prescribed drugs werethe newer drugs like topiramate and lamotrigine (2%).Conclusion: Older antiepileptic agents like carbamazepine, valproate, phenytoin are still the most commonlyagents as monotherapy whereas newer ones like levetiracetam are mostly used as add on drug in cases of treatmentfailure with older drugs. Antiepileptic prescribing in this study population is in accordance to the standardtreatment guidelines for epilepsy.

AbstractAim: The objective was to evaluate the prescription pattern of Antiepileptic drugs and to evaluate how rational isthe prescription for various epilepsies.Methods: The present study was conducted in the Department of Pharmacology, Darbhanga Medical College,LaheriasaraiDarbhanga. Adult outpatients who have been diagnosed to have epilepsy were identified andprescribing pattern was studied. Totally 100 prescriptions were collected randomly over a period of 6 months.Patients demographic details, clinical diagnosis, type of epilepsy, type of AED used, drug dose and frequencywere recorded. Average number of drugs per prescriptions was calculated. Prescription of all patients was enteredin a preformed proforma and was analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: In the present study, out of 100 patients 60 patients were male and 40 patients were females. Epilepsywas more commonly seen in the patients of age group of 20-40 years. The analysis of the type of seizure showedthat the most common type was partial seizures (64%) and the least common type was absence seizures (3%).Regarding the mode of therapy, majority of the patients were treated with monotherapy (82%). Polytherapy wasgiven for 18% of the study population. The analysis of prescriptions showed that the most commonly prescribeddrug was carbamazepine (36%) followed by valproate (24%) and levetiracetam (23%). The other drugs prescribedwere phenytoin (5%), phenobarbitone (6%), benzodiazepines (4%). The least commonly prescribed drugs werethe newer drugs like topiramate and lamotrigine (2%).Conclusion: Older antiepileptic agents like carbamazepine, valproate, phenytoin are still the most commonlyagents as monotherapy whereas newer ones like levetiracetam are mostly used as add on drug in cases of treatmentfailure with older drugs. Antiepileptic prescribing in this study population is in accordance to the standardtreatment guidelines for epilepsy.