Quality of life in patients with epilepsy taking carbamazepine or oxcarbazepine monotherapy

AIM: To assess the influence of carbamazepine (CMZ) and oxcarbazepine (OXZ) on quality of life (QOL) in nondepressed adult patients with epilepsy. In addition, assessment of the influence of different factors on QOL was also targeted. METHODS: Ninety patients on monotherapy, 61 (33 female, 28 male) receiving CMZ and 29 (18 female, 11 male) receiving OXZ, were included in this study. We used the mini mental test (MMT), state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI-I and STAI-II), structured clinical interview for DSM-IV clinical version (SCID), Beck depression inventory (BDI), and Quality of life in Epilepsy Inventory-10 (QOLIE-10). We evaluated the relation with QOLIE-10 between demographic and clinical properties of the patients. RESULTS: MMT score was 28.41±1.36 (25 to 30) in CBZ group and 28.72±1.39 (26 to 30) in OXZ group (P, 0.31). In addition, the mean score of STAI-I was 34.5±10.9 (20 to 67), STAI-II was 40.9±9.2 (25 to 68), BDI was 9.8±6.8 (0 to 29), and QOLIE-10 was 21.2±4.9 (13 to 39). There was no statistical difference between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, we concluded that there was no considerable influence of any type of antiepileptic drug (CMZ, OXZ) and demographic properties of the patients on QOL, whereas state-trait anxiety and high score of BDI without depression had a negative role on OQL of the patients with epilepsy. © 2011 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins