Abstracts

Rationale: The aim of this study is to evaluate the possible cognitive /behavioural effects of Pregabalin (PGB), as add-on therapy in epilepsy. It is reported in the literature that this new antiepileptic treatment may ameliorate the mood state, while very few is known on cognitive variables.Methods: This is a single-center, open study: 16 patients with focal epilepsy were assessed before the assumption of PGB (baseline) and when the PGB therapeutical dose was achieved, 12 weeks later (end point). The results were compared to those seen in a control group (N=16) matched as closely as possible to the PGB subjects with respect to sex, age, education, frequency of seizures, duration of the disease, number of drugs. The neuropsychological evaluation included measures of intelligence, short-term and long term verbal memory, short-term and long term visual memory, attention, language production and comprehension, Quality of Life, anxiety and depression. All these tests were validated on the Italian population. Results: Our results indicate that patients receiving Pregabalin as add-on therapy showed an improvement in the mood state compared to the controls: their levels of anxiety and depression in fact were reduced. No important changes were noticed on the cognitive variables. Conclusions: This issue needs to be more thoroughly investigated, with a larger sample, although the results obtained with PGB are indeed very encouraging.