In addition to treating epilepsy, the anti-seizure medications are also used for a variety of other illnesses, including migraines, certain nerve-pain disorders, and psychiatric diseases such as bipolar disorder that themselves carry a risk of suicide.
In 2005, federal regulators began investigating if epilepsy drugs pose any suicide risk and analyzed almost 200 studies of 11 anti-seizure drugs, some of which have been on the market for decades. The study involving 43,892 patients showed that 0.43 percent of the patients treated with these drugs experienced suicidal thoughts or behavior, compared with 0.22 percent of the patients given a placebo.
The Wall Street Journal reported the warnings will be added to labels of the following drugs:
Carbamazepine (marketed as Carbatrol, Equetro, Tegretol, Tegretol XR),Felbamate (Felbatol),Gabapentin (Neurontin),Lamotrigine (Lamictal),Levetiracetam (Keppra),Oxcarbazepine (Trileptal),Pregabalin (Lyrica),Tiagabine (Gabitril),Topiramate (Topamax),Valproate (Depakote)Zonisamide (Zonegran)In January, the FDA issued an Early Communication announcing a safety review of the epilepsy drugs after a study showed they increased patients' risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior.
However, the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the medications including drug makers GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, Inc., are against these warning and made their case to the FDA at a closed meeting on Monday, the Journal reported.
An FDA advisory panel is scheduled to discuss the new warnings on July 12.
