The effects of antiepileptic drugs on lipid profiles and liver enzymes

Abstract

Objective: The effects of antiepileptic drugs on lipid profiles and liver enzymes have been well verified in studies that were, however, performed on old antiepileptic drugs, which were enzyme inhibitors and inductors. There are very limited studies of new antiepileptic drug to this date. In this study, antiepileptics such as valproic acid and carbamazepine were compared with the new ones, e.g. oxcarbazepine, levetiracetam and topiramate for the effects on lipid profiles and liver enzymes. Methods: In this study, we recruited a total of 63 patients with partial epilepsy who were on monotherapy for at least one year and divided them into different drug groups-carbamazepine (n=15), valporic acid (n=15), oxcarbazepine (n=9), levetirasetam (n=9), and topiramate (n=9). Two control groups, healthy control (n=15) and epileptic control (n=15), were constituted. Results: The results of healthy controls and epileptic controls were compared. Serum triglyceride and VLDL levels were high, levels of AST were low (p<0.05) in the epileptic controls. Carbamazepin group had higher total cholesterol (TC) and TC-HDL (p<0.05), valproic acid group had lower AST and ALT levels (p<0.05), oxcarbazepine group had higher TC, levetiracetam group had higher TC and TC-HDL (p<0.05), and the topiramate group had lower levels of AST (p<0.05) in comparison with the healthy controls. The topiramate group had lower triglyceride and higher HDL levels (p<0.05) than the epileptic controls. Conclusion: The results of our study suggest that the new antiepileptic drugs have no negative effects on liver enzymes and that topiramate has protective effects on lipid profile against atherosclerosis and, support the literature-reported findings demonstrating that topiramate may be a drug of choice in cases of patients with coronary disease. © Archives of Neuropsychiatry, published by Galenos Publishing.