ABSTRACT
Effective antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have been available for the treatment of epilepsy since bromides were introduced in 1857 (1). The introduction of phenobarbital in 1912 marked the next important step in the development of the therapeutic armamentarium (2), and phenobarbital is still a first-line AED in many parts of the world (3). A slow development followed and only a few major new AEDs-phenytoin, carbamazepine, and valproate-were introduced during the following close to eight decades. However, the situation has now changed dramatically with more than 10 newAEDs licensed since 1990. This has provided epileptologists and their patients with more treatment options, but at the same time the much more challenging task of being rational in drug selection.
