Review question

This review is an update of a previously published review in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2015, Issue 12) on ‘Losigamone add-on therapy for focal epilepsy’. We reviewed the evidence about the efficacy and safety of losigamone when used as an add-on therapy for focal epilepsy. We found two studies.

Background

Epilepsy is a common neurologic disorder, affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide; nearly a third of these people have epilepsy that is not well controlled by a single antiepileptic drug (AED) and often require treatment with two or more AEDs (add-on therapy). In recent years, many newer AEDs have been investigated as add-on therapy for focal epilepsy; losigamone is one of these drugs. We wanted to know whether losigamone was an effective and safe treatment for people with focal epilepsy.

Study characteristics

The evidence is current to February 2017. We found two trials assessing add-on losigamone for focal epilepsy, which recruited a total of 467 participants aged over 18 years. Both trials assessed losigamone 1200 mg/day or 1500 mg/day as an add-on therapy for focal epilepsy.

Key results

The results of this review showed that participants taking losigamone as an add-on treatment were more likely to reduce their seizure frequency by 50% or more in the short term; however losigamone was associated with more treatment withdrawal side effects than placebo. The most frequent adverse event caused by losigamone was dizziness.

Quality of the evidence

We assessed one trial as being of good methodological quality while the other was of uncertain quality. We judged the overall quality of the evidence for the outcomes assessed as moderate.