Levetiracetam as a Potent and Safe Antiepileptic Drug

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Deraya University, Minia, Egypt.

2 Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Minia University, Minia, Egypt.

3 Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Minia University, Minia, Egypt.

Abstract

A group of new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) has been clinically established and used. Most of these 
drugs have new mechanisms of actions that differ from older drugs. Levetiracetam (LEV), a second
generation AEDs, is a pyrrolidine derivate compound. The mechanism of action of LEV is different 
from older AEDs since, it reduces the epileptic seizures through binding to the synaptic vesicle 
protein 2A (SV2A) receptor. Some studies have reported that LEV, as monotherapy for patients with 
focal and generalized seizures and safer than AEDs. Other studies concluded that LEV can be used as 
add-on therapy (Any therapy that is given in addition to the primary or initial therapy to maximize its 
effectiveness) for patients with focal, myoclonic, and generalized tonic clonic seizures (GTCS). Its 
pharmacokinetic profile is favorable. It has less drug interaction with other AEDs. This article
summarizes the clinical data of LEV in the management of different kinds of epilepsy. 

Keywords

Main Subjects

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics