Is Magnesium Valproate Better Than Sodium Valproate In Efficacy And Tolerability, As A New Kind Of Antiepileptic Drug? A Retrospective Observation Study In China

Purpose: To compare the efficacy and tolerability of the two most usedantiepileptic drugs (AEDs), magnesium valproate and sodium valproate asmonotherapy in Chinese patients with epilepsy.Methods: This is a retrospective, observational study in epilepsyresearch centre of three provinces of China. Overall,318patients werefollowed during a long period. Chi-test and Wilcoxon rank sum test wereused to analyze the effective rate,12-month remission, retention rate andmedian time of treatment failure.Results: The total effective rate was89.19%in magnesium valproategroup, and78.69%in sodium valproate group. The12-remission rate was64.86%in magnesium valproate and41.80%in sodium valproate. Therewere68.92%,48.65%and41.89%of12-month,24-month and more than36-month retention rate in magnesium valproate, and53.69%,37.30%and24.59%in sodium valproate group. The median time of treatment failure was16months of magnesium valproate and7.53months of sodiumvalproate. All above results estimated by chi-test and Wilcoxon rank sumtest showed significant statistic difference between magnesium valproateand sodium valproate. There were10.81%magnesium valproate and11.47%sodium valproate patients had occurred adverse reaction during thetreatment. And25.68%and27.87%patients among them in each group, ledto treatment failure, which was no significant difference between them.Conclusion: Compared with sodium valproate, patients treated withmagnesium valproate were more effective. But the incidence of adversereaction was the same for the two drugs.