Hi all,

following up on research regarding eslicarbazepine - a drug (AED) i ran across a couple years ago, ifound it is coming to fruition.... about nowish!

Sepracor Announces Submission of Stedesa New Drug Application to FDA for Adjunctive Treatment of Epilepsy

it has already been approved in Europe (not sure if on market yet though.)

for more articles on eslicarbazepine (Stedesa):

More articles on eslicarbazepine (Stedesa) at drugs.com

This drug is supposed to be really good with refractory partial seizures, and supposed to help with depression too (!), but it is unclear if the implication is helping with being depressed from having uncontrollable seizures (that's depressing! ) - OR - if it actually has antidepressant properties. What is unclear is whether non-epileptic depressed individuals were included in the trials. It is however implied that it shows potential both for epilepsy and affective disorders.

Another thing.
It is related to carbamazepine (Tegretol) and oxcarbazepine (Trileptal) so one might expect cross-sensitivity in individuals who have had issues with these two drugs. However, the structural difference of this drug does imply an improved safety profile, as well as different metabolic pathways than either carbamazepine or oxcarbazepine. Here's the abstract to a tech article on the drug, although from it i cannot deduce what the potential for any cross-sensitivity might be:

Eslicarbazepine Acetate (BIA 2-093)

Neurotherapeutics, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages 88-96
L.ALMEIDA

If i come up with anything else i will post.

Or if anyone else finds anything more specific, esp. regarding the cross-sensitivity, please add to the thread!

~ waves ~