Product Details
LEVETIRACETAM 500MG
Introduction : Levetiracetam 500mg tablet is a medicine used to treat epilepsy.
Seizures are bursts of electrical activity in the brain that temporarily affect how it works. Levetiracetam tablet slows these electrical signals down to stop seizures.
Levetiracetam is used to treat certain types of seizures in people with epilepsy, including partial onset seizures, myoclonic seizures, and tonic-clonic seizures.
Levetiracetam 500mg tablet can make you feel sleepy, tired or dizzy when you start taking it or increase your dose. It can also affect your vision. If this happens to you, do not drive, ride a bike or operate machinery until this goes away.
It can take a few weeks for levetiracetam tablet to work. You may still have seizures during this time.
This medicine can be used with other seizure medicines. Keep using all of your seizure medicines unless your doctor tells you otherwise.
Indication : Levetiracetam 500mg tablet is used alone or together with other medicines to help control certain types of seizures (eg, partial seizures, myoclonic seizures, or tonic-clonic seizures) in the treatment of epilepsy.
This medicine cannot cure epilepsy and will only work to control seizures for as long as you continue to use it.
This medicine is available only with your doctors prescription.
Administration : Levetiracetam 500 tablet may be taken with or without food or on a full or empty stomach. However, if your doctor tells you to take the medicine a certain way, take it exactly as directed. You should try to take this medicine at the same time each day.
Swallow the tablet or the extended-release tablet whole. Do not break, crush, or chew it.
Storage : Store the medicine in a closed container at room temperature, away from heat, moisture, and direct light.
Side Effects : dizziness, drowsiness, tiredness, weakness;
feeling aggressive or irritable;
loss of appetite;
stuffy nose; or
infection.
Safety Advice / Warnings : There are no adequate studies in women for determining infant risk when using this medication during breastfeeding.
Advise patient to avoid activities requiring mental alertness or coordination until drug effects are realized, as drug may cause dizziness, somnolence, and coordination difficulties
Advise patient against sudden discontinuation of drug, as this may increase seizure frequency
References : Product Information: SPRITAM(R) oral tablets, levetiracetam oral tablets. Aprecia Pharmaceuticals (per manufacturer), East Windsor, NJ, 2015.
Product Information: KEPPRA(R) oral tablets, oral solution, levetiracetam oral tablets, oral solution. UCB, Inc. (per FDA), Smyrna, GA, 2015.
https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/levetiracetam
Mechanism of Action : The exact mechanism of action is unknown but does not involve inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmission. Stereoselective binding of levetiracetam was confined to synaptic plasma membranes in the central nervous system with no binding occurring in peripheral tissue. Levetiracetam inhibits burst firing without affecting normal neuronal excitability, which suggests that it may selectively prevent hypersynchronization of epileptiform burst firing and propagation of seizure activity
Therapeutic : Anti Convulsants