EPILEPSIAS RECEM-DIAGNOSTICADAS: ADERENCIA, TOLERANCIA E PROGNOSTICO COM A PRIMEIRA DROGA

There are few data related to recently diagnosed epilepsy (RDE) in Brazil. We followed up 78 patients ages ranging from 6 to 61 years (average 17.96) with RDE for 12.68 months (1-29 months) aiming to evaluate adherence, tolerance and efficacy of the first epileptic drug used. All patients had partial seizures with or without secondarily generalized and tonic-clonic seizures for an average of 7.68 months (4 days to 7 years). We found 11 patients (14.10%) not adherent to the treatment and 14 (17.94%) with side-effects that provoked the drug substitution. The most prevalent side-effects were dysmorphic signs such as hirsutism and gingival hyperplasia, gastro-intestinal symptoms, idiosyncratic reations and sedation. Sixty-six per cent of the patients were seizure-free after 8 weeks and 63.8% for 56 weeks of treatment. These data are consistent with the international literature. The ratio of non-adherent to the treatment was high (14.10%), probably due to socio-economic and cultural aspects of the studied population. We stressed that 17.94% of the patients do not tolerate the first antiepileptic drug, requiring substitution. Approximately 2/3 of the patients with RDE obtained good results with the first medication.