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DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1791425
Levetiracetam Adherence in the Treatment of Epilepsy: Results of a Physician Survey
Autoren
Background: Anti-seizure drugs (ASDs) are potent therapies for achieving seizure remission in epilepsy. However, poor medication adherence is an important issue. A survey was conducted to understand Indian clinicians' perceptions on the prevalence of epilepsy and practice patterns regarding choice of ASDs, challenges with adherence to ASDs and patients' real-life experience with EAZYGLIDETM-coated levetiracetam tablets.
Methods: The survey questionnaire involved 243 neurologists/neurosurgeons across different regions of India and was conducted from April to December 2021. Responses were summarized using descriptive statistics.
Results: On a monthly basis, 45.0, 46.0, and 42.0% neurologists were consulted by 10 to 25% of children (<18 years), women of childbearing potential, and elderly (>65 years) patients with epilepsy, respectively; levetiracetam was preferred as first-line therapy for generalized and focal epilepsy by 77 and 78% clinicians, respectively. Levetiracetam was preferred by 93.0, 61.2, and 44.6% of neurologists in women, elderly patients, and children with epilepsy, respectively. Reasons for nonadherence to ASDs were stopping medications once patients feel better, forgetting to take medications, and trouble swallowing tablets. Tablet size and shape was a main reason for trouble with swallowing, according to 88.0% clinicians. All clinicians agreed that patients found it easy to swallow EAZYGLIDETM-coated levetiracetam tablets, while 99.0 and 98.0% clinicians agreed that these tablets helped resolve the concern with difficulty in swallowing and improved patient adherence, respectively. All clinicians agreed that these tablets had good acceptability overall.
Conclusion: Clinicians agreed that EAZYGLIDETM levetiracetam tablets helped resolve concerns with difficulty in swallowing and improve medication adherence in patients with epilepsy.
Conflicts of interest
Shiva Kumar R received fees for participation in this survey from Abbott. Greeshma Upendra is an employee of Abbott.
Acknowledgments
Authors would like to thank Dr. Radhika from Scientimed for medical writing support.
Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht.
Publikationsverlauf
Artikel online veröffentlicht:
12. September 2024
© 2023. Indian Epilepsy Society. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
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