What are the effects of pregabalin add-on for people with drug-resistant focal epilepsy?

Abstract

Compared with placebo for adolescents and adults with drug‐resistant focal epilepsy taking up to five antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), low‐certainty evidence suggests that more people may achieve a 50% or greater reduction in seizure frequency with pregabalin within 12 to 17 weeks (319 vs 140 per 1000 people; all results on average). Moderate‐certainty evidence shows that more people will probably be seizure‐free with pregabalin, although the absolute numbers of people benefiting are likely to be small (28 vs 7 per 1000 people). Moderate‐certainty evidence also shows that more people taking pregabalin are likely to withdraw from treatment (for any reason or due to an adverse effect; 47 and 102 additional withdrawals per 1000 people, respectively) and/or to experience ataxia, dizziness, somnolence, and weight gain (89, 193, 95, and 82 additional events per 1000 people).