Despite an abundance of information on clinical and experimental epilepsy and on the drugs effective in its treatment, we 3rc still without a full undentanding of the inherent etiology of the epileptogenic focus and the mechanism of action of anticonvulsant drugs. In recent years allcolion has therefore been mainly directed towards the elucidation of these factors on a neuropharmacological and ...

Anticonvulsant drugs are widely used in psychiatric indications. These include mainly alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal syndromes, panic and anxiety disorders, dementia, schizophrenia, affective disorders, bipolar affective disorders in particular, and, to some extent, personality disorders. A further area in which neurology and psychiatry overlap is pain conditions, in which some anticonvu...

The chapter summarizes literature on the teratogenic effects of anticonvulsants and presents data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register. Many anticonvulsants have a teratogenic effect which varies between individual drugs with the highest risk associated with the use of valproic acid and probably topiramide. For some much used drugs like carbamazepine and lamotrigine the risk is not much elev...

In a group of non-anaemic mentally retarded patients a significant increase in mean red cell volume has been demonstrated in epileptic patients being treated with anticonvulsants. The possible sites of interference of anticonvulsants with folate activity in the body, and problems associated with folic acid supplements during anticonvulsant therapy, are discussed. During the survey it was confir...