A new rapid titration protocol for lamotrigine that reduces the risk of skin rash

Abstract

Objective: Lamotrigine is one of the most widely used antiepileptic drugs, but it has a critical issue of a skin rash if the starting dose is too high or the escalation rate is too rapid. We investigated the efficacy and safety of a novel and rapid titration protocol for lamotrigine that takes only 11 days to reach a daily dose of 200 mg. Methods: We prospectively enrolled 33 adult patients (age 18-85) who were diagnosed with epilepsy and started lamotrigine administration for the first time at a single tertiary hospital. Our new protocol starts with a subthreshold dose of the drug and then administers a stepwise-incremental dose until reaching the full therapeutic dose within 11 days. Results: Of 29 patients analyzed, only two (6.9%) experienced idiosyncratic skin rash before the first follow-up visit at 2 weeks (±3 days). In addition, a therapeutic concentration was reached in more than 75% of studied patients after 2 weeks of lamotrigine administration. Significance: These findings demonstrate the value of the novel tolerance induction protocol for lamotrigine, which could widen the available application of lamotrigine in various situations. However, this study is a preliminary study limited by a small number of patients and its nonrandomized and open-label design, so the current protocol needs more rigorous clinical evaluations before the application to the real clinical setting.