ABSTRACT
Since the introduction of phenobarbital as an antiepileptic drug (AED) in 1912, many thousands of investigational compounds have been screened in acute seizure models. However, only a small fraction of these agents have made it to human clinical trials, and only several dozen such drugs have ultimately been approved for clinical use (1). Most of the AEDs currently used in the epilepsies are believed to regulate ion channels in synaptic terminals of the brain, leading to a net decrease in membrane excitability (2).
