Table 6.

Costs related to medication for treating one person with epilepsy in US$. Adapted from [55]

Name medication	Usage	Median buyer price/day per treated person (US$)a	Defined daily dose (DDD)b	Median buyer price/year per treated person (US$)	Used by percentage of all epilepsy patients [56]
Phenobarbital ~ 100 mg (1×)	Used for all forms of epilepsy. Most used AED in Sub-Saharan Africa which serves as first-line, because it is relatively cheap and available [10].	$0.0141	100 mg	$5.15	74.6%
Carbamazepine ~ 200 mg (4–5×)	Used for focal seizures [50].	$0.14	1000 mg	$255.50	27.4%
Phenytoin ~ 100 mg (3×)	Used in some generalised seizures and status epilepticus [50].	$0.0449	300 mg	$49.17	22.2%
Valproate ~ 500 mg (3×)	Used for all forms of epilepsy including absences, atonic and myoclonic seizures [50].	$0.1339	1500 mg	$146.62	14.7%
Weighted-average cost of AEDc					US$ 106.31

Note: ^aThese figures on dosages per drug are based on the daily average dosage that are generally applied in rural African settings, and obtained by comparing several buyer prices for the same product in 2015 [55]

^bThe defined daily dose (DDD) methodology was designed by the WHO to help in following and comparing cost trends at the international level, but not to be used for detailed reimbursement, therapeutic group reference pricing or other specific pricing decisions [55]

^cThe weighted average was calculated by ((100 mg × 1 × cost Phenobarbital unit price × 365 days × 0.746) + (200 mg × 5 × cost Carbamazepine unit price × 365 days × 0.274) + (100 mg × 3 × cost Phenytoin unit price × 365 days × 0.222) + (500 mg × 3 × cost Valproate unit price × 365 days × 0.147))/1.0 total population = US$ 106.31