The effects of lacosamide on cognition, quality-of-life measures, and quality of life in patients with refractory partial epilepsy

- This study supported prior studies that showed Lacosamide is effective as an adjunct therapy in refractory partial epilepsy.
- Lacosamide was well-tolerated and the results from this study suggest that there are low risks for adverse events.
- Lacosamide appeared to have low risks for significant changes in cognition or mood/quality of life.

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to examine cognitive and quality-of-life measures/quality of life outcomes with adjunctive lacosamide therapy in patients with treatment-resistant partial epilepsy.MethodsThis was a prospective, open-label, nonblinded, adjunctive therapy test-retest (within subjects) study of patients with treatment-resistant partial epilepsy in which outcome (cognitive functioning and mood/quality of life) was measured in the same subject before and after adjunctive lacosamide administration for 24 weeks. The cognitive assessment included the following: Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Buschke Selective Reminding Test, Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised, Stroop Color Word Test, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Digit Span, Digit Cancellation, and Trails A and B. The quality-of-life measures/quality-of-life assessment included the following: Beck Depression Inventory-II, Profile of Mood States, and Quality of Life Inventory-89. Lacosamide was started at 100 mg (50 mg twice daily) and could be titrated as needed up to 400 mg/day (200 mg twice daily). Baseline concomitant AEDs were kept constant. Composite scores were calculated for a pre-post difference score for the cognitive and mood/quality-of-life measures separately and used in regression analyses to correct for the effects of age, education, seizure frequency, seizure severity, dose of lacosamide, and number of AEDs at baseline.ResultsThirty-four patients were enrolled (13 males, 21 females). Mean age was 38.8 ± 2.43 years. Mean seizure frequency decreased significantly from 2.0 ± 2.55 seizures per week at baseline to 1.02 ± 1.72 seizures per week at posttreatment (t = 4.59, p < .0001) with a 50% responder rate seen in 18 patients (52.9%). No significant differences were found on the composite scores of the cognitive or the mood/quality-of-life measures after 6 months of lacosamide.SignificanceLacosamide appeared to have low risks of significant changes in cognition or mood/quality of life. In addition, the present study supports prior studies that have proven lacosamide as an effective adjunctive therapy for the treatment of resistant partial epilepsy.