The Effects Of Oxcarbazepine Monotherapy On The Sleep Structure Of Partial Epilepsy Pediatric Patients

Aim: Little and contradicting effects are known about the effects of new antiepileptic drugs on the sleep structure. The purpose for this research was to study the effects of Oxcarbazepine(OXC) monotherapy on sleep structure of patients with partial onset epilepsy. Methods: The subjects of this study were fifteen children(n=15) who visited the pediatric outpatient clinic of the Affiliated union hospital of Fujian medical university between January, 2014 to December, 2014 and diagnosed with partial onset epilepsy. Oxcarbazepine was the drug of choice for their seizure control. The study was a prospective self-control study in which patients underwent before treatment(T0) and after treatment(T1) polysomnographic recordings. Basic demographics such as age, sex, seizure type were obtained from the clinical history. In this paper means of sleep structure parameters before and after treatment were obtained and analyzed using student’s t-test. Results: OXC was associated with significant increased in total sleep time(80.73±113.99 min, P=0.016), sleep efficiency(8.68±13.21%, P=0.023), REM sleep percentage(4.81±8.64 %, P=0.049), latency to REM sleep(170.93±257.98 min, P=0.022) and significant improvement in wake time after sleep onset(52.87±84.04 min, P=0.029). There was an observed non significant difference in the number of awakenings between baseline and after treatment group. There was a tremendous decrease of REM sleep percentage on the before treatment group(T0) followed by an obvious increase on the after treatment group(T1). No significant changes were seen on sleep stages 1(N1), stage 2(N2) stage 3 and 4(N3). All patients had tolerated the dose and had a good control of their seizures. Conclusion: The findings show that in children with partial onset epilepsy, OXC incremented sleep and might have good restorative effects on the patients sleep.