Brodie 1999

Methods	Randomised, multicentre, double‐blind, parallel‐group trial conducted in the UK 2 treatment arms: LTG and CBZ randomised in a 2:1 ratio
Participants	Adults > 65 years with newly diagnosed epilepsy with ≥ 2 seizures in the previous year with at least 1 seizure in the last 6 months. None had received previous AED treatment. Number randomised: LTG = 102, CBZ = 48 83 male participants (55%) 105 participants with partial epilepsy (70%) Mean age (range): 77 (65‐94) years
Interventions	Monotherapy with LTG or CBZ 4‐week escalation phase leading to LTG = 100 mg/d, CBZ = 400 mg/d Range of follow‐up = 0‐13.5 months
Outcomes	Time to first seizure after 6 weeks of treatment Time to withdrawal Percentage of participants reporting an adverse event Proportion of participants who were both seizure‐free in the last 16 weeks of the trial and did not discontinue treatment
Notes	IPD provided by trial sponsor Glaxo Smith Kline for time to treatment withdrawal and time to first seizure (plus seizure‐freedom rates at 24 weeks)
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Computer‐generated random sequence (information provided by drug manufacturer). Participants randomised in a 2:1 ratio (LTG:CBZ)
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Allocation concealed by individual sealed, opaque envelopes (information provided by drug manufacturer)
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Double‐blind achieved using LTG tablets formulated to be identical in appearance to CBZ tablets
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Trial investigator blinded, not stated if other outcome assessors were blinded
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Attrition rates reported, all randomised participants analysed from IPD provided (see footnote 2)
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Protocol provided. All outcomes reported or calculated with IPD provided (see footnote 2)
Other bias	Low risk	None identified