AEDs effect on nutrients and seizures

[Guest guest]

I haven't posted for a long time. Good to see you are still around

Arnold. This article below has some good information. If we just took

the nutrients in the first place, reduced the inflammation, we might

no need the drugs in many cases.

The side effects of AEDs may lead to worsening seizures as this study

shows. Folic acid and B12 together are better at lowering

homocysteine than either one alone.

Zoe

C:\My Documents\AEDs-b12b6homo.DOC

: Seizure. 2006 Mar;15(2):79-85. Epub 2006 Jan 18. Related Articles,

Links

Effects of common anti-epileptic drug monotherapy on serum levels of

homocysteine, vitamin B12, folic acid and vitamin B6.

Sener U, Zorlu Y, Karaguzel O, Ozdamar O, Coker I, Topbas M.

SSK Tepecik Teaching Hospital, Department of Neurology, Izmir,

Turkey. usener2003@...

There is emerging evidence to support the unfavorable effects of some

anti-epileptic drugs on the plasma homocysteine concentrations.

Elevated homocysteine levels induced by anti-epileptic drug

administration can theoretically increase not only the risk of

vascular occlusive diseases, but also the risk of resistance to anti-

epileptics and development of refractory epilepsy. To investigate the

effect of common anti-epileptic drugs on the homocysteine metabolism,

a total of 75 epileptic patients receiving phenytoin (n=16),

carbamazepine (n=19), or valproic acid (n=22) and no anti-epileptic

drug (n=18) were enrolled. Eleven age- and sex-matched healthy

subjects served as the control group. Blood concentrations of

homocysteine, folic acid, Vitamin B12 and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate

(active circulating form of Vitamin B6) were measured. Compared to

the control group, epileptic patients on anti-epileptic drug had

higher blood levels of homocysteine. No difference in homocysteine

concentrations was observed among epileptic patients in terms of the

anti-epileptic drug used. Patients receiving phenytoin had

significantly lower folic acid levels and those receiving

carbamazepine had marginally lower pyridoxal 5'-phosphate levels in

comparison with those using other anti-epileptic drugs. A negative

correlation between homocysteine and folic acid concentrations was

detected in epileptic patients on anti-epileptic drug. The duration

of anti-epileptic drug use was correlated to the decrease of folic

acid levels, but not with changes observed in homocysteine, Vitamin

B12 and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate levels. No relationship between

seizure frequency and homocysteine levels was observed in epileptic

patients. Our results confirm that common anti-epileptic drugs has

disadvantageous effects on homocysteine status. Because there was no

significant change in homocysteine concentrations in epileptic

patients who were not receiving an anti-epileptic drug, and no

positive correlation between seizure frequency and homocysteine

levels, we suggest that increase of homocysteine levels may be due to

anti-epileptic drug use, rather than being epileptic in origin.

Additionally, the underlying mechanism for homocysteine increase

seems to be a decrease of cofactor molecules in patients using

carbamazepine and phenytoin (pyridoxal 5'-phosphate and folic acid,

respectively). However, changes observed are not related to the

alteration in the levels of cofactors and remain unclear in the

patients using valproic acid.

PMID: 16414291 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]