New antiepileptic drugs

Since 1994, 10 new antiepileptics drugs have been developed and many others will be available in a near future. Effectiveness of theses new antiepileptic drugs is similar to the old ones but they have a better side-effect profile. This article updates their clinical use, taking into account the recent studies. These new antiepileptics drugs improve quality of life of the patients, but their use is not entirely safe, including the possible aggravation of certain forms of epilepsy. A better physiopathological knowledge of the epilepsy will help in the future to choose the most adequate drug(s) for each patient. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.