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Epilepsy is a neurological disorder with high prevalence worldwide. It is characterized by recurrent seizures due to abnormal electrical activity in the brain. Treatment involves the use of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) to control seizures. Suboptimal use of AEDs can have negative impacts on seizure management in patients. This study aims to identify the most frequently used AEDs, the patterns of monotherapy and polytherapy use, and the factors influencing AED selection. This study is a descriptive research with prospective data collection. The data used are medical records of epilepsy patients at the Neurology Polyclinic of Dr. M. Djamil Hospital Padang. The research sample was obtained using the consecutive sampling technique. Data analysis was conducted descriptively and presented in the form of descriptions and percentages from the collected medical record data regarding the use of antiepileptic drugs. In this study, 24 out of a total of 45 patients (53.3%) received single-agent antiepileptic therapy (monotherapy), while 21 other patients (46.7%) received combination antiepileptic therapy. The most common single-agent therapy was phenytoin, used by 17 patients, followed by carbamazepine used by 4 patients, and phenobarbital used by 3 patients. As for combination therapy, 14 patients received a combination of phenytoin and phenobarbital, 6 patients received a combination of carbamazepine and phenobarbital, and 1 patient received a combination of valproic acid and phenobarbital.
Juwita et al. (Thu,) studied this question.