May 04 2009
“FDA Issues Warning on Anticonvulsants Used To Treat BPD”
From: http://bpd.about.com/b/2009/04/21/fda-issues-warning-on-anticonvulsants-used-to-treat-bpd.htm
Tuesday April 21, 2009
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a warning for people who take anticonvulsant medications such as Tegretol, Neurontin, and Depakote. After careful analysis, the FDA found that individuals who receive these types of medications may be as much as two times more likely to have suicidal thoughts or behaviors than individuals who receive placebos (inactive medications).
This news may be particularly important for individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), who are often prescribed anticonvulsants due to their mood-stabilizing properties. BPD is also associated with a very high risk of suicidality. Find more on the specifics of the FDA warning on the FDA website.
For more on the use of anticonvulsants to treat BPD, see the article “BPD and Medications.”
What particularly intrigues me is the unfortunate situation where someone is diagnosed as having epilepsy whilst also having, as yet undiagnosed, Borderline Personality Disorder. I can’t be the only one: epilepsy is just about the most common neurological complaint and personality disorders are becoming more prevalent. If there is a common component - structural, chemical or biological - between these disorders, then the likelihood of co-morbidity is presumably higher than the one in tens of thousands that would be dictated by pure chance. Even that rate of co-occurrence would affect a great number of people in a nation of some tens of millions of people.
In mine own case, I stopped using anticonvulsants - long before my BPD diagnosis - because they seemed to cause more problems than they relieved.
More information at http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/antiepileptics/default.htm
The following is a list of antiepileptic drugs* included in the analyses:
Labeling and approval history from Drugs@FDA.
- Carbamazepine (marketed as Carbatrol, Equetro, Tegretol, Tegretol XR)
- Divalproex sodium (marketed as Depakote, Depakote ER)
- Felbamate (marketed as Felbatol)
- Gabapentin (marketed as Neurontin)
- Lamotrigine (marketed as Lamictal)
- Levetiracetam (marketed as Keppra)
- Oxcarbazepine (marketed as Trileptal)
- Pregabalin (marketed as Lyrica)
- Tiagabine (marketed as Gabitril)
- Topiramate (marketed as Topamax)
- Zonisamide (marketed as Zonegran)
* Some of these drugs are also available in generic form.
