United States: A new review of researchers indicates that one can seek to minimize the potentially fatal reactions to anti-seizure medications.
Taking blood samples, questioning patients about their risk factors, and adjusting the dosages themselves can all minimize the dangers of an allergic reaction to drugs that millions of Americans take for epilepsy or other neurological disorders, the researchers pointed out.
More about the news
Meanwhile, reactions such as rashes or skin reactions to those newly prescribed medicines need immediate intervention, the result says.
Symptoms of this problem are skin rashes, which manifest with various anti-seizure meds in 2-16 percent of patients, according to researchers’ background information, as US News reported.
Almost 5 percent of these rashes indicated a life-threatening condition, researchers noted.
As the researchers pointed out, the FDA has recently released a safety communication that labels severe reactions to two antiepileptic drugs: levetiracetam and clobazam.
What more have the experts stated?
According to Dr. Ram Mani, the lead researcher, and who is also the chief of the adult epilepsy division at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, “Dangerous reactions are rare, but patients and caregivers should understand the risk and how to respond if side effects occur,” as US News reported.
In their new report, published in the journal Current Treatment Options in Neurology, the researchers unpacked and synthesized the published work, comparing and contrasting the various rashes and the different anti-seizure drugs.
More about the findings
The findings revealed that genetics make a person more vulnerable to severe rash, and that is in combination with the other drugs into which the doses of the anti-seizure meds interrelate.
Consumers are also more vulnerable if they use aromatic anti-seizure drugs such as phenobarbital or carbamazepine or if a doctor increases the consumer’s dose of medication swiftly.
The common rash that was reported involves flat rash or hives involving the trunk or limbs and appeared within two weeks of starting treatment, according to the findings by the researchers. It is usually non-destructive and will disappear within a few weeks after the patient has ceased using the drug.
However, extreme skin conditions are also portrayed, though not very often. Steven-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis involve fever and eye pain with detached skin, and patients usually need to be hospitalized.
According to Dr. Cindy Wassef, the researcher and an assistant professor of dermatology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School said, “Patients should seek medical treatment if rashes develop rather than waiting for them to disappear,” as US News reported.
“If symptoms are mild, they can contact their neurologist or primary care physician, but serious symptoms like a high fever, skin pain, or blisters warrant a trip to the emergency room or a 911 call,” Wassef continued.
Moreover, as Mani noted, “I gave a talk on this topic at the American Epilepsy Society Conference last year, and I asked the more than 200 doctors in the room how frequently they perform the recommended HLA screening tests on indicated patients, and only a handful raised their hands,” and, “So, there’s definitely room for improvement to increase patient safety.”