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Anticonvulsant Agents: Carbamazepine, Oxcarbazepine, and Eslicarbazepine Acetate

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NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy

Abstract

Carbamazepine, and the newer but structurally related oxcabazepine and eslicarbazepine acetate, belongs to the dibenzazepine group of antiepileptic drugs, mainly used for patients with focal epilepsy. Like other antiepileptic substances, their mechanism of action is thought to be the inhibition of the voltage-gated sodium channel. Little differences can be found in efficacy among these three drugs. Despite showing similar dose-dependent adverse effect profile, there are important differences regarding pharmacokinetics and toxicity. For instance, carbamazepine is a stronger cytochrome inducer and oxcarbazepine causes more often hyponatremia. Although data on teratogenicity is sparse with eslicarbazepine acetate, the other two dibenzazepines seem to be minor teratogens. Because of their efficacy in focal epilepsy, and other epileptic syndromes, as well as some psychiatric and pain conditions, they are one of the most prescribed families of antiepileptic drugs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epilepsy Program, Neurology Department, Hospital Ruber Internacional, Madrid, Spain

    Angel Aledo-Serrano & Antonio Gil-Nagel

Authors
  1. Angel Aledo-Serrano
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  2. Antonio Gil-Nagel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Angel Aledo-Serrano .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept Psychiatry , Psychosomatics & Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Medical School Clinical Neurochemistry, Würzburg, Germany

    Peter Riederer

  2. Inst für Psychologische Medizin, Haag, Bayern, Germany

    Gerd Laux

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Benoit Mulsant

  4. Center Translational Res Neurol Diseases, Dalian Med Uni Shanghai Inst Health Sc Center Translational Res Neurol Diseases, Dalian, China

    Weidong Le

  5. Fujita Health University School Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi, Japan

    Toshiharu Nagatsu

Section Editor information

  1. Beta Neurology – Competence Center for Epilepsy, Beta Klinik GmbH, Bonn, Germany

    Christian E. Elger FRCP

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Aledo-Serrano, A., Gil-Nagel, A. (2020). Anticonvulsant Agents: Carbamazepine, Oxcarbazepine, and Eslicarbazepine Acetate. In: Riederer, P., Laux, G., Mulsant, B., Le, W., Nagatsu, T. (eds) NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56015-1_294-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56015-1_294-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56015-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56015-1

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