Bial and Eisai have announced clinical practice data from the Euro-Esli study demonstrating clinical effectiveness of eslicarbazepine acetate, and that it is generally well tolerated as an adjunctive therapy in focal epilepsy patients with psychiatric comorbidities, including intellectual disability, compared with people with no psychiatric comorbidities.
The data, which add to the body of evidence on eslicarbazepine acetate as adjunctive therapy from Phase III studies, were published in Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
Psychiatric comorbidities, including intellectual disability and depression, are common for adults who have epilepsy. Prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities may be twofold higher in adult patients with epilepsy compared to the general public, and up to a quarter of people diagnosed with epilepsy are estimated to have an intellectual disability. Psychiatric comorbidities can exacerbate the effects and increase the impact of epilepsy. Furthermore, antiepileptic treatments can interfere with treatments for the psychiatric comorbidities, and thus adversely affect these psychiatric conditions. There are many considerations for treating this patient population, thereby complicating treatment choice.