An Examination of 1-Year Adherence and Persistence Rates to Antiepileptic Medication in Children With Newly Diagnosed Epilepsy

Objective The primary aim of the current study was to use new methods to examine 1-year quality of medication dosing (adherence) and continuation with medication treatment (persistence) rates to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in children with newly diagnosed epilepsy. Methods Medication-taking behav-iors of AEDs were assessed using electronic monitors for 117 children with newly diagnosed epilepsy for the first year after diagnosis. Results Approximately 15 % of participants were categorized as nonpersistent (i.e., failed to take medication for>15 consecutive days) 6-months after AED initiation, which increased to 26.6 % of participants at 1 year. The majority of medication dosing events took place within a þ/2-hr inter-val as recommended. The group with lower socioeconomic status demonstrated more nonpersistence over time. Conclusion Examining adherence and persistence in medication taking behaviors may yield different types of data for clinical and research purposes. Key words adherence; chronic illness; neurological disorders; research design and methods. Pediatric epilepsy affects approximately 325,000 children under the age of 15 years in the United States (Zupanc, 1996). The primary treatment regimen for pediatric epi-lepsy involves adhering to antiepileptic drug (AED) therap