NEW ANTICONVULSANTS

The development of antiepileptic drugs has been rather slow, and this may be related partly to the regulatory requirement to show unequivocal benefit of a new agent over existing drugs. There is a need to reconsider trial protocols to achieve this objective. Five new drugs, vigabatrin (GVG), lamotrigine (LTG), gabapentin (GPT), felbamate and oxcarbazepine (OCBZ) appear to be the most widely tested and promising agents. Of the others, loreclezole and stiripentol (STP) are showing the highest potential for therapeutic application. Clobazam appears to be more effective than implied from earlier reports.