Effect of Oxcarbazepine on Language Function in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Pediatric Epilepsy

Background and Purpose This study aimed to determine the effects of oxcarbazepine (OXC) on the language function of patients with pediatric epilepsy. Methods We assessed the language abilities of patients aged 5-17 years with newly diagnosed focal epilepsy and the same number of age-matched healthy children using the Test of Problem Solving (TOPS) and the Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test-Receptive (REVT-R). The Mean Length of Utterance-words (MLU-w) was used to estimate linguistic productivity before and after OXC initiation. All patients received OXC monotherapy with a starting dosage of 10 mg/kg/day for 1 week, which in some cases was increased to 30 mg/kg/day (or 1,200 mg/day). Results The study finally included 41 pediatric patients (22 males and 19 females; age 9.9 +/- 3.0 years, mean +/- standard deviation). All language parameters of the TOPS improved significantly after initiating OXC (determining cause, 12.5 +/- 4.8-13.7 +/- 4.1 [p=0.016]; making inference, 15.6 +/- 5.6-17.4 +/- 6.4 [p<0.001]; and predicting, 9.8 +/- 5.0-11.6 +/- 4.5 [p=0.001]). However, patients who received OXC did not exhibit a significantly extended MLU-w (determining cause, p=0.493; making inference, p=0.386; and predicting, p=0.341). Receptive language scores also significantly increased after taking OXC (REVT-R: 121.0 +/- 43.1-129.4 +/- 43.8, p=0.002), but the percentage of development age to chronological age did not vary (REVT-developmental quotient: p=0.075). Conclusions Our results suggest that OXC is safe and preserves language function in patients with pediatric epilepsy.