Oxidative stress in patients with epilepsy is independent of antiepileptic drugs

Purpose: Oxidative stress has been implicated in many pathological processes. The brain is highly susceptible to oxidative stress because of its high lipid content. In this study, the oxidative parameters in patients with epilepsy and those of a control group were measured. The study's aim was to determine whether there are differences between the oxidative levels of treated and untreated patients and whether there are differences between individual antiepileptic drugs. Methods: Oxidative parameters such as Malondialdehyde (MDA), Protein Carbonylation (PC) and Nitric Oxide (NO) levels were evaluated in 100 patients with epilepsy and compared to an equal number of age and sex matched healthy subjects. In the study group, the oxidative parameters of 25 untreated patients were compared to treated patients and the control group. The treated patients were divided into 2 groups based on their antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Group 1 consisted of patients on a single AED, and group 2 was composed of patients taking more than one AED. A comparative study was performed on the oxidative parameters of medicated patients on single drug regimens and multidrug regimens. Results: The MDA and PC levels were significantly higher in patients than in the control group (P < 0.0001). However, there was no significant difference in the NO levels of patients and those of the control group. The 25 untreated patients had higher MDA and PC levels compared to both the control group (P < 0.0001) and treated patients (P < 0.0001). There was no difference in the oxidative levels between untreated patients and treated patients, group 1 and group 2, and individual AEDs. Conclusions: In this study, we demonstrated the presence of significantly increased levels of oxidative markers in patients with epilepsy as compared to the control group. AEDs did not influence the oxidative markers, suggesting the presence of seizure-induced oxidative stress. (C) 2012 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.