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Kathryn Davis, MD, MSTR: Off-Label Clobazam Use in Refractory Epilepsy

The associate professor of neurology and medical director of the epilepsy monitoring unit and Penn epilepsy surgical program at the University of Pennsylvania discussed the findings of a single-center review of off-label clobazam use for patients with drug-refractory epilepsy.

By: Kathryn Davis, MD, MSTR

Published: August 09, 2019

“We’re hoping to look at longer-term follow-up in those patients and then publish that study. I really think it’s of interest because outside of academic epilepsy centers, I don’t think clobazam is being used as broadly.”

Clobazam (Onfi, Lundbeck) has been approved for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) since 2011, though epileptologists have used the long-acting benzodiazepine off-label for some time for a variety of epilepsies. Despite this use, little research has delved into the efficacy and tolerability of clobazam in adults with drug-refractory epilepsy.

To find out more, Kathryn Davis, MD, MSTR, associate professor of neurology, and medical director, epilepsy monitoring unit and Penn epilepsy surgical program, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues conducted a single-center retrospective chart review at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Of the 417 patients treated with clobazam between 2010 and 2017, post-intervention, 50.3% experienced a >50% reduction in seizure frequency and 19.9% achieved seizure freedom, with no statistically significant difference between epilepsy types.¹

NeurologyLive^® sat with Davis in an interview at the 2019 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting, May 4-10, in Philadelphia, to hear Davis share her thoughts on the results and what they mean for clinical practice, as well as what still needs to be done in the research.

For more coverage of AAN 2019, click here.

REFERENCE
Levinson N, Jami A, Kjankjanian P, Hill C, Davis K. Efficacy and Tolerability of Clobazam in Adult Drug-Refractory Epilepsy. Presented at: AAN Annual Meeting; May 5-9, 2019; Philadelphia, PA. P1.5-035.

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