Comparison of the retention rate, safety, and efficacy of two different titration protocols for lamotrigine in newly diagnosed epilepsy patients

ABSTRACT

Objectives

To evaluate and compare the retention rate, safety, and efficacy of two different lamotrigine (LTG) titration protocols for newly diagnosed epilepsy patients.

Methods

We retrospectively evaluated newly diagnosed epilepsy patients taking LTG from January 2012 to December 2021. In one titration protocol, LTG was taken once daily; in the other, LTG was taken twice daily. Clinical characteristics, seizure outcomes, adverse effects and patient retention rates were evaluated.

Results

A total of 193 patients were included. There was no significant difference in seizure outcomes or adverse effects between patients treated with LTG once daily and twice daily. However, the retention rates were significantly higher in the once-daily group than in the twice-daily group (73.03% and 55.77%, respectively).

Conclusion

The effectiveness and safety of LTG were not significantly different between the two different LTG titration protocols groups. However, the retention rate of the patients treated with LTG once daily was higher than that of the patients treated with LTG twice daily.

KEYWORDS:

• Lamotrigine
• titration protocol
• retention rate
• safety
• efficacy

Declaration of interest

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

N Zhang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Investigation, Writing -Original Draft. D Yang: Investigation, Validation, Formal analysis, Software. C Niu: Investigation, Validation, Formal analysis. P Li: Validation, Formal analysis. H Wang: Validation, Formal analysis. X Li: Supervision, Data Curation, Writing - Review & Editing. W Jing: Supervision, Resources, Writing - Review & Editing, Data Curation. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript for publication.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14737175.2022.2155141

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from Basic Research Programs of Science and Technology Commission Foundation of Shanxi Province (grant number 20210302123486), the Foundation of China Association Against Epilepsy (grant number CU-A-2021-26), and Foundation of Shanxi Bethune Hospital (grant number 2021YJ01 and 2021YX16).