ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 29, 1996 TAG: 9612300088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug that, when added to other medicines, may help hard-to-treat epilepsy patients control their seizures.
Ortho-McNeil Pharma- ceutical's Topamax, known chemically as topiramate, was approved Thursday as an adjunctive therapy to treat partial seizures, the most common type, in adults.
Some 2 million Americans have epilepsy, and many control the resulting seizures with medication. But about 30 percent of patients continue to suffer breakthrough seizures despite treatment.
In a study of 181 patients who suffered about 11 seizures a month, 44 percent of those who added Topamax to standard epilepsy medication cut by half their number of seizures.
About 1.5 percent of patients in clinical trials developed kidney stones, so the drug's label recommends increased fluid intake.
Ortho-McNeil said Topamax will be available by prescription in late January.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 32 linesby CNB