View the Comparison Table: Some Oral Antiseizure Medications

Glycopyrrolate (Robinul, and others), a synthetic muscarinic receptor antagonist, has been used off-label for many years for treatment of excessive drooling in patients with Parkinson’s disease, in patients taking clozapine for schizophrenia, and in developmentally disabled children.1-3 It has now been approved by the FDA as Cuvposa (Shionogi) for use specifically in children 3-16 years old with severe chronic drooling due to a neurologic condition, such as cerebral palsy. It is being marketed as an oral solution, which will permit more precise weight-based dosing than was possible with the...

The CDC recently announced that it will now supply the investigational drug miltefosine (Impavido – Paladin, Canada) for treatment of infections caused by free-living amebae.1 The drug was previously available in the US only from the manufacturer through an FDA Investigational New Drug (IND) application.Meningoencephalitis caused by the free-living amebae Naegleria fowleri, Acanthamoeba spp., or Balamuthia mandrillaris, usually acquired through the nose while swimming in warm fresh water, has a mortality rate of >90% despite treatment with multiple antimicrobial drugs.2 Miltefosine is...

The FDA has removed the requirement that mifepristone (Mifeprex, and generics), a progestin receptor antagonist approved for use in a regimen with the prostaglandin E1 analog misoprostol (Cytotec, and generics) for medical termination of pregnancy, must be dispensed in person to the patient.

The FDA is requiring a new warning in the prescription and over-the-counter labels of the oral second-generation H₁-antihistamines cetirizine (Zyrtec, and others) and levocetirizine (Xyzal, and others) about the risk of severe pruritus following discontinuation of treatment.

The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved ''Treatment IND';'; (investigational new drug) protocols for Exosurf (Burroughs Wellcome) and Survanta (Ross), two preparations of surfactant used for prevention and treatment of the respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in premature newborn infants. Consequently, these drugs will be available to virtually every level-ΙΙΙ neonatal intensive-care unit in the USA.

Isradipine (DynaCirc - Sandoz), a dihydropyridine calcium-channel blocker chemically related to nicardipine (Cardene) and nifedipine (Procardia, and others), was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for oral treatment of hypertension.

Cysteamine bitartrate (Cystagon - Mylan), an orphan drug, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for oral treatment of nephropathic cystinosis, an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder that affects only a few hundred people in the USA (WA Gahl et al, in The Metabolic Basis of Inherited Disease, 7th ed., CR Scriver et al, eds, New York:McGraw-Hill, 1995, p 3763).

Irinotecan hydrochloride (Camptosar - Pharmacia & Upjohn; formerly CPT-11) has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer refractory to other drugs including fluorouracil (5-FU; Adrucil and others).

Now that US Secretary of Defense has decided to vaccinate more than 2 million memebers of the US armed forces against anthrax, US physicians may be asked to answer some questions about the vaccine and the disease.