Journal of Neuropsychiatry

Drug and substance abuse in refractory epilepsy

Object: The present work aimed to study the etiology of non-response to antiepileptic drugs by estimating their serum levels and screening of drugs and substance abuse in patients with resistant epilepsy.
Methods; this study was conducted in epilepsy outpatient clinic. 924 patients with intractable epilepsy were included. They subjected to -Toxicology screen for detection of drug and substances abuse by analysis of urine and blood samples. -Measurements of the level of antiepileptic drugs in the blood. All assays run on the system use of EMIT and confirmed by GC/MS. Results; Confirmed Positive results for drugs and substances abuse were detected in 246 of 924 patients (26.62%) by GC/MS. Cannabis was the first abused drug (29.27%). Only 17 patients show serum level of antiepileptic drugs within therapeutic range, but 169 patients' levels were below it and 60 patients with levels above it. Conclusions; Substances abuse may be the cause of resistant epilepsy as they are epileptogenic by themselves or due to drug-drug interaction with the antiepileptic.

Author(s):

AbdeldayemRaafatand Hazem Maha

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