Abstracts

Rationale: Behavioral changes are commonly associated with epilepsy and the use of antiepileptic drugs. We aimed to evaluate changes in the anger status in patients with focal epilepsy who start treatment with Eslicarbazepine acetate (ESL). Methods: Prospective study of patients with focal epilepsy from 6 different hospitals, who met the following criteria:  =18 years, certain diagnostic of focal epilepsy and =2 antiepileptic drugs at baseline visit. All patients completed the State-Trait Anger with the Expression Inventory 2TM, hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Quality of Life in epilepsy inventory (QOLIE-10) at baseline before starting ESL and in the final follow-up 3 months later. Results: From 58 patients screened, 42 completed the study. Demographics: Mean age 50.6 years (range 26-78); Females 45.2%. Half of them were temporal lobe epilepsy and 45.2% cryptogenic. Mean monthly seizure frequency was 3.1, which decreased to 0.7 in the follow-up (p The anger expression index improved significantly in the whole group (p=0.036), the anger trait was more likely to improve in the bitherapy patients (p=0.029) and the state of anger showed better performances in patients <50 years old (p=0.005). A global improvement in anxiety (p=0.011) and QOLIE-10 (p=0.023) was seen. Conclusions: The treatment with ESL, alongside with a good seizure control and tolerability may improve the anger status in patients with epilepsy. Funding: Not funding