Effect Of Antiepileptic Medications On The Quantitative Electroencephalogram Of Epileptic Patients

Background: Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) remain the primary treatment option for epilepsy. Analysis of background EEG frequencies can be a simple and objective method of evaluating the effect of AEDs, due to the established hypothesis that the background EEG activity represents the functional state of the brain. Objective: To assess the effect of AEDs on the background activity of the inter ictal EEG recordings, using quantitative measures of some epileptic patients, known to have whether focal or generalized epilepsy. Methods: Retrospective analysis of the medical and quantitative EEG records of 61 known epileptic patients. The EEG relative powers of various frequency bands were subjected for statistical comparisons between patients, who were classified to clinical groups and subgroups. Results: Significant increase of the relative powers of the slow waves (delta and theta waves) in the non-medicated, compared to the medicated group mainly seen in the midline leads as well as the parietal ones. These findings were almost replicated in non-medicated patients having generalized epilepsies. In addition, the wave (delta, theta, alpha and beta) powers increase was expressed in a more diffuse pattern in nonmedicated males. Conclusion: We support the hypothesis of drug-induced decreased cortical EEG sources synchronization as an explanation of our positive results. The males are assumed to express such drug-induced changes more prominently than females, due to lack of changes of the blood antiepileptic drug levels. However, these changes occur in females in relation to their hormonal cycles, as mentioned in otherprevious studies.