Epilepsia
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
A multicenter randomized controlled trial on the clinical impact of therapeutic drug monitoring in patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy. The Italian TDM Study Group in Epilepsy.
To assess the clinical impact of monitoring serum concentrations of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy. ⋯ Only a small minority of patients were treated with PHT, the drug for which serum concentration measurements are most likely to be useful. With the AEDs most commonly used in this study, early implementation of serum AED level monitoring did not improve overall therapeutic outcome. and the majority of patients could be satisfactorily treated by adjusting dose on clinical grounds. Monitoring the serum levels of these drugs in selected patients and in special situations is likely to be more rewarding than routine measurements in a large clinic population.