Poor correlation between single-dose data and steady-state kinetics for phenobarbitone, primidone, carbamazepine and sodium valproate in children during monotherapy. Possible reasons for the lack of correlation.

An investigation was performed to determine the relationship between the serum drug concentration/dose ratio at 24 hours following a first dose and that at steady-state for phenobarbitone, primidone (as phenobarbitone and as primidone), carbamazepine and sodium valproate, in order to assess the utility of this method in clinical practice. The drugs were given as monotherapy to 63 children for the treatment of epilepsy or febrile convulsions. The correlation between concentration/dose ratios, instead of between serum concentrations, was investigated with the aim of allowing the use of variable doses. The correlation coefficients were: r = 0.30 for phenobarbitone; r = 0.05 for phenobarbitone derived from primidone; r = 0.38 for primidone; r = 0.19 for carbamazepine; and r = 0.52 for sodium valproate. None of these correlation coefficients differed statistically from 0. These low correlation coefficients contrast with the acceptable results found by other authors for other drugs, indicating that several factors may have a greater influence on this correlation than earlier investigations suggest. The poor correlation obtained emphasises the need for clinical verification of mathematical models based on theoretical considerations which do not always apply in practice.