Brodie 1995a.

Methods	Randomised, double‐blind, parallel‐group trial conducted in 8 centres in the UK. 2 treatment arms: LTG and CBZ
Participants	Adults and children > 13 years with newly diagnosed epilepsy. None had received previous AED treatment. Number randomised: LTG = 70, CBZ = 66 56 male participants (41%) 82 with partial epilepsy (60%); Mean age (range): 34 (14‐71) years
Interventions	Monotherapy with LTG or CBZ 4‐week escalation phase leading to LTG = 150 mg/d, CBZ = 600 mg/d Range of follow‐up = 0‐14 months
Outcomes	Time to first seizure after 6 weeks of treatment Time to withdrawal Proportion of randomised participants remaining seizure‐free during the last 40 and 24 weeks of trial Percentages of participants who reported adverse events
Notes	IPD provided by trial sponsor Glaxo Smith Kline for time to treatment withdrawal, time to first seizure and time to six‐month remission
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). Stratification by seizure type
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