Callaghan 1985

Methods	Single‐centre, randomised, parallel‐group trial of participants referred for assessment at Cork Regional Hospital, Ireland 3 treatment arms: CBZ, PHT, VPS
Participants	Adults and children with a minimum of 2 untreated generalised or partial seizures in the 6 months preceding the trial Number randomised: PHT = 58, CBZ = 59, VPS = 64 95 male participants (52%) 79 participants (44%) with partial epilepsy Age range: 4‐75 years
Interventions	Monotherapy with CBZ, PHT or VPS Mean daily dose achieved: PHT = 5.4 mg/kg, CBZ = 10.9 mg/kg, VPS = 15.6 mg/kg Duration of treatment (range in months): 14‐24 months
Outcomes	Seizure control: excellent (complete freedom of seizures) good (> 50% reduction in seizure frequency) poor (< 50% reduction in seizure frequency or no response) Side effects
Notes	Outcomes chosen for this review were not reported. IPD not available
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Randomisation based on two Latin squares without stratification. The first, second and third preference of drug for the participant appears to have been taken into account in the process. Unclear if assignment was completely random
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	High risk	An independent person (department secretary) selected the “drug of first preference” from randomisation list on a sequential basis. Allocation not adequately concealed
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	No information provided
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	No information provided
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Attirition rates reported. ITT approach taken, all randomised participants analysed
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Primary outcomes (seizure control) and secondary outcomes (side effects) reported sufficiently
Other bias	Low risk	None identified