The impact of antiepileptic polytherapy on mood and cognitive function

This retrospective study was performed to reevaluate the effect of polytherapy on mood and cognitive function. 139 patients with refractory epilepsy were screened with a neuropsychological test battery and a depression score. Our regression model with age at admission, duration of the disorder and number of antiepileptic drugs as independent variables had a significant affluence on 10 out of 11 neuropsychological parameters but not on depression. Looking at the significance of each predictor variable the number of antiepileptic drugs had a significant effect only on the estimation of the fluid intelligence. A significant effect on five neuropsychological parameters was found for the predictor variable duration of the disorder. Therefore our data do not support the commonly reported hypothesis that antiepileptic polytherapy itself is a substantial risk factor for cognitive deficits or depression in patients with refractory epilepsy. But there may be an influence of accumulative drug load during the course of the disorder as reflected by the effect of the duration of the disorder on jive neuropsychological parameters.