Behavioural effects of anti-epileptic drugs.

There is increasing evidence that various types of behavioural disturbance, other than those described for phenytoin, for example, may occur from the use of anti-epileptic medication, and it has been suggested that these disturbances may not always be reversible. There are suspicions also that certain groups of patients--especially those with structural brain damage--are particularly susceptible. These and other factors relevant to the study of the effects of anti-epileptic drugs on behaviour are comprehensively reviewed. It is concluded that the psycho-pharmacology of anti-epileptic drugs is unsatisfactory at present because of inadequate and unsophisticated reporting of behavioural change and because of the common problem of polypharmacy, and that more accurate observations are needed on less heterogeneous groups of patients that have been described in the past.