Monotherapy versus Polytherapy in Epileptic Adolescents

Objective: Comparison between the effect of monotherapy and polytherapy on cognitive functions and growth measurements among epileptic adolescents. Methods: This study was carried on 57 adolescents from those with antiepileptics either monotherapy or polytherapy, in comparison with 20 controls. All were exposed to full neurological examination, Psychometric studies using Revised Behavior Problem Checklist “RBPC”, anthropometric measurements including height, weight, estimation of blood haemoglobin “Hb” , serum levels of copper and zinc. Results: We found that 29 cases were with monotherapy and 28 cases were with polytherapy. Scores of RBPC revealed that conduct disorders, socialized aggression and social anxiety withdrawn scales, showed significant increase in epileptic adolescents in comparison with controls which is more in cases with polytherapy, with higher frequency in distractability and restlessness in those with monotherapy. Those with polytherapy showed high frequency in depression and psychomotor retardation. Levels of heamoglobin, copper, and zinc was statistically decreased among epileptics, more with Polytherapy. There was increase in weight and BMI with monotherapy while there was decrease in weight and BMI with polytherpy as compared with controls. Conclusion: Epileptic patients with monotherapy scored better cognitive functions, than those with polytherapy. So we recommend monotherapy in treatment of epilepsy for better cognitive functions.