Table 1. Baseline clinical characteristics and demographic information.
| carbamazepine | valproate | lamotrigine | topiramate | oxcarbazepine | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | 125 | 151 | 135 | 76 | 167 | 654 |
| Male a (%) | 67(53.6) | 86(57.0) | 51(37.8) | 39(51.3) | 76(45.5) | 319(48.8) |
| Age a , median(range) (years) | 29(16–72) | 27(16–88) | 31(16–60) | 28(16–64) | 33(16–71) | 29(16–88) |
| Age at seizure onset a , median(IQR) (years) | 23(15) | 21(14) | 23(20) | 26(17) | 25(22) | 23(17) |
| Seizure duration a , median(IQR)(years) | 4(9.1) | 3(7.3) | 3(9.0) | 2(5.1) | 3(9.5) | 3(9.3) |
| History of irregular medication a , (%) | 65(52.0) | 59(39.1) | 50(37.0) | 32(42.1) | 77(46.1) | 283(43.3) |
| Seizures within the past one year a (%) | ||||||
| ≤20 | 76(60.8) | 98(64.9) | 91(67.4) | 60(78.9) | 87(52.1) | 412(63.0) |
| >20 | 49(39.2) | 53(35.1) | 44(32.6) | 16(21.1) | 80(47.9) | 242(37.0) |
| The longest pre-intervention interseizure interval of one year before medication a (months) (%) | ||||||
| ≤4 | 100 | 108 | 92 | 51 | 142 | 493 |
| >4 | 25 | 43 | 43 | 25 | 25 | 161 |
| Seizure type a (%) | ||||||
| Simple or complex partial seizure only | 33(26.4) | 20(13.2) | 30(22.2) | 6(7.9) | 34(20.4) | 123(18.8) |
| Secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizure | 92(73.6) | 131(86.8) | 105(77.8) | 70(92.1) | 133(79.6) | 531(81.2) |
| Etiological classification of epilepsy a (%) | ||||||
| Symptomatic | 91(72.8) | 75(49.7) | 74(54.8) | 39(51.3) | 83(49.7) | 362(55.4) |
| Cryptogenic | 32(27.2) | 76(50.3) | 61(45.2) | 37(48.7) | 84(50.3) | 292(44.6) |
| Imagining (CT or MRI result) (%) | ||||||
| Related abnormal | 56(44.8) | 35(28.0) | 40(29.6) | 19(25.0) | 43(25.7) | 195(29.8) |
| Normal | 55(44.0) | 92(60.9) | 80(59.3) | 50(65.8) | 114(68.3) | 391(59.8) |
| Loss or not done | 14(11.2) | 24(15.9) | 15(11.1) | 7(9.2) | 8(4.8) | 68(10.4) |
| Antecedents a (%) | 60(48.0) | 53(35.1) | 50(37.0) | 25(32.9) | 47(28.1) | 235(35.9) |
| ITD, range (mg/day) | 300–800 | 500–1500 | 50–200 | 75–250 | 450–1800 | / |
| MMD b (range) (mg/day) | 600 (300–1200) | 1000 (500–2000) | 100 (50–250) | 200 (75–400) | 900 (450–2400) | / |
| PDD/DDD ratio a , c , median(IQR) | 1.0(0.7) | 1.0(0) | 0.7(0.7) | 1.2(0.6) | 1.0(0.3) | 1(0.4) |
IQR: interquartile range; CT: computed tomography; MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; ITD: initial target dose; MMD: maximum maintenance dose.
a Confounders which were included in the Cox proportional hazard models.
b MMD: the data of patients who had treatment failure before being titrated to initial target dose was excluded.
c PDD: prescribed daily dose. The MMDs were adopted as PDDs, and in patients who withdrew before being titrated to ITDs, the maximum doses that had been taken were adopted. DDD: defined daily dose, 1 DDD = 600 mg [CBZ], 1000 mg [VPA], 135 mg [LTG], 170 mg [TPM], 950 mg [OXC]. The principle of establishing the DDDs was to have a similar distribution of PDD/DDD ratios between each AED in pairwise comparison to make it to possible to compare the use conditions of AEDs