Study flow diagram.

<p>^apatients missing outcome data: patients who did not complete effectiveness/safety assessment at least for one time after being prescribed with AEDs; ^bpatients with poor compliance: patients who discontinued AEDs by themselves with a single discontinuing time less than two weeks but the accumulated one >20% of the total observational period. Patients who did not take AEDs according to the prescribed doses and the doses they took were also lower than the initial target doses (ITDs); ^cLost: lost to follow-up before treatment failure; ^dAEs: treatment failure because of adverse events; ^eLE: treatment failure because of lack of efficacy; ^fOthers: other reasons leading to treatment failure: pregnancy, poor economic conditions, non-compliance and deaths related to seizures; ^gContinue: continue treatment on AEDs; ^hLost: including one person who died without relation to AED medication; CBZ: carbamazepine; VPA: valproate; LTG: lamotrigine; TPM: topiramate; OXC: oxcarbazepine.