A pharmacological overview of lamotrigine for the treatment of epilepsy

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, affecting about 2% of the population worldwide. Lamotrigine (LTG) is a second generation anti-epileptic drug (AED) with broad spectrum of activity, a favourable side-effect profile, simpler dosing than earlier drugs and efficacious in diverse epilepsy syndromes.

Areas covered: The present review focuses on pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, clinical efficacy, safety and tolerability of LTG and its effect on cognition, psychiatry, quality of life, women and pregnancy along with effect of enzyme inducing and enzyme inhibiting drugs over LTG and their effect on serum level fluctuations by collecting data from various studies over the years until 2016.

Expert commentary: Results from various studies and clinical trials indicate that LTG possessed a favourable profile of anticonvulsant activity and good tolerability as a monotherapy/or add-on therapy in children and adult patients against several types of seizures and syndromes. It has wide clinical dose range with favourable pharmacokinetic properties making it an excellent therapeutic option in epilepsy.

KEYWORDS:

• Epilepsy
• lamotrigine
• pharmacokinetics
• sodium channel blocker
• women

Declaration of interest

The authors have no 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. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.