Therapeutic drug monitoring--antiepileptic drugs.

AIMS: To provide a brief critical review of the basis and contemporary practice of monitoring the concentrations of antiepileptic drugs in biological fluids.
METHODS: The review is based on literature data and observations from clinical practice.
RESULTS: As experience has accumulated, monitoring of antiepileptic drug concentrations has come to be applied mainly to certain of the drugs when present in whole plasma. For these drugs there is a reasonably established relationship between drug concentrations and biological effects, but attention still needs to be paid to issues such as the timing of the measurements in relation to drug intake, the presence or absence of steady-state conditions, the presence in plasma of active metabolites and possible nonlinear pharmacokinetics of particular agents e.g. phenytoin.
CONCLUSIONS: Plasma antiepileptic drug concentration monitoring is coming to be used in a more thoughtful and critical manner. Lack of adequate knowledge of matters such as the relationship between the plasma concentrations and antiepileptic and toxic effects of the drugs, not only the newer, but also the longer established ones, in particular clinical situations, remains more important than deficiencies in analytical methodology in limiting the clinical usefulness of antiepileptic drug concentration monitoring.