Oxcarbazepine: a review

Oxcarbazepine recently gained a licence in the UK and USA. The purpose of this article is to review the pharmacology and therapeutics of oxcarbazepine for those prescribers unfamiliar with this interesting new antiepileptic drug1–3. Although only newly licensed in the UK and USA, oxcarbazepine has in fact been in routine clinical use in Denmark and other countries for up to 10 years, and experience of more than 200 000 patients years has been gained. Within the regulatory database, there are detailed records of around 7000 patients worldwide. This is an unusually large experience, and oxcarbazepine comes into practice within the UK with a great deal of background data concerning its pharmacological and clinical properties, and a wide range of indications. Indeed, oxcarbazepine is already considered a first line therapy in certain countries for a range of epilepsy indications1.