ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how to evaluate behavioral and cognitive side effects of antiepileptic drugs using relatively simple methods that can be utilized routinely in the search for new anticonvulsant agents. It considers the evaluation of new drug combinations, since it is known that polytherapy of epilepsy is saddled with greater risk of undesirable side effects. Acute toxicity from antiepileptic drugs in laboratory animals almost invariably is manifested by signs of neurological deficit, such as sedation, hypo- or hyperlocomotion, ataxia, abnormal gait, reduced or inhibited righting reflexes, muscle relaxation, and cognitive deficits. The clinical efficacy of newly developed antiepileptic drugs is usually evaluated in add-on trials, i.e. by adding the new drug to the existing medication with standard antiepileptic drugs in patients with chronic epilepsy. The protective index is a numerically expressed measure of the relative safety of a drug, that is separation between the anticonvulsant and neurotoxic effects of a given antiepileptic drug.
