Maschio, M., Dinapoli, L., Sperati, F., Pace, A., Fabi, A., Vidiri, A., . . . Carapella, C.M. (2012). Effect of pregabalin add-on treatment on seizure control, quality of life, and anxiety in patients with brain tumour-related epilepsy: A pilot study. Epileptic Disorders, 14, 388–397.
To evaluate the effect of pregabalin as an add-on therapy on seizure control, quality of life, and anxiety in patients with brain tumor–related epilepsy.
Pregabalin was added as a first or second add-on drug at 75 mg/day to a maximum of 600 mg/day for specific drugs (i.e., clobazan, lamorigine, levetiracetam, oxcarbazepine, phenobarbital, valproate, and topiramate).
The mean dose of pregabalin was 279 mg/day, and the mean follow-up period was 4.1 months. At the end of the follow-up, in the whole intention-to-treat population, nine patients were seizure free, 10 patients had a seizure reduction, and two patients were unchanged. There was a significant difference in the presence or absence of seizure between the baseline and the follow-up visit. There was a significant decrease in anxiety score (p = 0.002) between baseline and last available follow-up visit.
The study showed improvement in anxiety scores with pregabalins, but this is a pilot study with small sample size and a short follow-up period. Future studies with larger sample size and minimum dropout are indicated.
Larger sample size is needed to evaluate the true impact of pregabalin on anxiety among patients with brain tumor–related epilepsy. There are not many implications for nursing because the intervention is drug related.