Are There Any New Medications for Epilepsy? I Am Interested in Ones That Actually Work.?

My sister has had epilepsy now for 15 years. The first medication she was on was Valproic Acid, which is also known as Depakene®, Depakote®, Depakote® ER, Depakote® Sprinkle, Divalproex sodium, and Valproate sodium It made her teeth brittle and caused her to gain weight. Her epileptic seizures didn't seem to be controlled by this medication. A few years later, the doctor changed it to Tegretol (also known as
Carbamazepine, Carbatrol, Epitol, Tegretol-XR), which seemed to help. Back in 2001, she was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia and the treatment for this was to increase her dosage of Tegretol and the pain went away.

Tegretol is part of the older medications that have been used to treat epilepsy. These also include: valproic acid (Depakote, Depakene), phenytoin (Dilantin, Phenytek), mysoline (Primidone) and phenobarbital.

Now the NEWER medications that are used are as follows: gabapentin (Neurontin), lamotrigine (Lamictal), topiramate (Topamax), tiagabine (Gabatril), levetiracetam (Keppra), zonisamide (Zonegran), oxcarbazepine (Trileptal) and pregabalin (Lyrica). A ninth drug, felbamate (Felbatol), is rarely used because of potential for serious side effects.