Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0030193 (pain)
 261,466 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Zonisamide (Zonegran, Eisai, Inc.) is a broad spectrum antiepileptic drug indicated for use as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of partial seizures. Zonisamide has multiple mechanisms of action, which may explain widespread reports of its utility in focal epilepsy and generalized epilepsy, and for nonseizure disorders such as headache and neuropathic pain. Zonisamide has been available in Japan since 1989 and became available in the USA in 2002. The rights to this drug in North America and Europe were recently acquired by Eisai Co. A review of the chemical properties, pharmacokinetics, metabolism, potential mechanisms of action, efficacy in seizure and nonseizure disorders, and tolerability was therefore thought to be timely.
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PMID:Zonisamide: newer antiepileptic agent with multiple mechanisms of action. 1585 20

Older generation antiepileptic drugs like Phenobarbital (Luminal), carbamazepine (Tegretol), phenytoin (Dilantin), and valproic acid (Depakote) have several shortcomings such as suboptimal response rates, significant adverse effects, several drug interactions, and a narrow therapeutic index. New antiepileptic drugs have been developed in the last decade to overcome some of these problems. These newer generation antiepileptics like felbamate (Felbatol), gabapentin (Neurontin), lamotrigine (Lamictal), levetiracetam (Keppra), oxcarbazepine (Trileptal), tiagabine (Gabitril), topiramate (Topamax), and zonisamide (Zonegran) have better tolerability profiles, low interaction potential, and significantly less enzyme inducing or inhibiting properties. As the use of antiepileptic drugs has expanded to include treatment of neuropathic pain, newer side effects have been reported. In addition to the common side effects of antiepileptic drugs, like dizziness, drowsiness, and mental slowing; other side effects like weight gain, metabolic acidosis, nephrolithiasis, angle closure glaucoma, skin rash, hepatotoxicity, colitis, and movement and behavioral disorders, to name a few, have been brought to our attention. This review is an attempt to highlight the features and incidences of some of these side effects.
Pain Pract 2004 Sep
PMID:Side effects of antiepileptics--a review. 1717 1