The study was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of single antiepileptic drugs with combination antiepileptic drugs in Idiopathic epilepsy in a routine clinical practice. Patients diagnosed with Idiopathic epilepsy and prescribed with a single antiepileptic drug and combinations of two antiepileptic drugs were included in the study. Out of 214 epilepsy patients, 8 patients were excluded for non-compliance and insufficient data. Patients were followed up for every 1-3 months in their outpatient clinic. Seizure activity was categorized into seizure freedom, reduction in seizure frequency and no change after therapy. We analyzed the effect of monotherapy and combination therapy on seizure frequency in patients with epilepsy (N = 206). 62 patients were on four different single antiepileptic drug and of them 32 were seizure free. 144 patients were on six different combinations of antiepileptic drugs and of them 87 were seizure free. We found the proportion of seizure-free cases with combination therapy was relatively less with monotherapy. We also found that the valproic acid (40.6%) had better outcome and a combination of levetiracetam with valproic acid (33.3%) had superior outcome measured against other AED combinations, concluding the suggestion for the use of combination therapy if initial monotherapy is unsuitable for the patients.

Keywords: Seizures, Anti-epileptic drugs, Monotherapy, Combination therapy.

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