TY  - JOUR
A1  - Willems, Laurent Maximilian
A1  - Bertsche, Astrid
A1  - Bösebeck, Frank
A1  - Hornemann, Frauke
A1  - Immisch, Ilka
A1  - Klein, Karl Martin
A1  - Knake, Susanne
A1  - Kunz, Rhina
A1  - Kurlemann, Gerhard
A1  - Langenbruch, Lisa Marie
A1  - Möddel, Gabriel
A1  - Müller-Schlüter, Karen
A1  - Podewils, Felix von
A1  - Reif, Philipp Sebastian
A1  - Steinhoff, Bernhard J.
A1  - Steinig, Isabel
A1  - Rosenow, Felix
A1  - Schubert-Bast, Susanne
A1  - Strzelczyk, Adam
T1  - Efficacy, retention, and tolerability of Brivaracetam in patients with epileptic encephalopathies : a multicenter cohort study from Germany
T2  - Frontiers in neurology
N2  - Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of brivaracetam (BRV) in a severely drug refractory cohort of patients with epileptic encephalopathies (EE).
Method: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study recruiting all patients treated with EE who began treatment with BRV in an enrolling epilepsy center between 2016 and 2017.
Results: Forty-four patients (27 male [61%], mean age 29 years, range 6 to 62) were treated with BRV. The retention rate was 65% at 3 months, 52% at 6 months and 41% at 12 months. A mean retention time of 5 months resulted in a cumulative exposure to BRV of 310 months. Three patients were seizure free during the baseline. At 3 months, 20 (45%, 20/44 as per intention-to-treat analysis considering all patients that started BRV including three who were seizure free during baseline) were either seizure free (n = 4; 9%, three of them already seizure-free at baseline) or reported at least 25% (n = 4; 9%) or 50% (n = 12; 27%) reduction in seizures. An increase in seizure frequency was reported in two (5%) patients, while there was no change in the seizure frequency of the other patients. A 50% long-term responder rate was apparent in 19 patients (43%), with two (5%) free from seizures for more than six months and in nine patients (20%, with one [2 %] free from seizures) for more than 12 months. Treatment-emergent adverse events were predominantly of psychobehavioural nature and were observed in 16%.
Significance: In this retrospective analysis the rate of patients with a 50% seizure reduction under BRV proofed to be similar to those seen in regulatory trials for focal epilepsies. BRV appears to be safe and relatively well tolerated in EE and might be considered in patients with psychobehavioral adverse events while on levetiracetam.
KW  - levetiracetam
KW  - epileptic encephalopathies
KW  - epilepsy
KW  - seizure
KW  - anticonvulsants
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/47273
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-472739
SN  - 1664-2295
N1  - Copyright © 2018 Willems, Bertsche, Bösebeck, Hornemann, Immisch, Klein, Knake, Kunz, Kurlemann, Langenbruch, Möddel, Müller-Schlüter, von Podewils, Reif, Steinhoff, Steinig, Rosenow, Schubert-Bast and Strzelczyk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
VL  - 9
IS  - Art. 569
SP  - 1
EP  - 8
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -