References
Abstracts of articles relevant to this topic are available through PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine:
Here are links to some articles relevant to this subject:
Mattson RH, Cramer JA, et al. A comparison of valproate with carbamazepine for the treatment of partial seizures and secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures in adults. New England Journal of Medicine, 327:765-771, 1992. PMID: 1298221.
Valproic acid and carbamazepine are equally effective for treating secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures in adults. Although other studies show that valproate is effective for newly diagnosed partial seizures, in this study carbamazepine provided better control of complex partial seizures. The side effects of these two medications are different.
Wilder BJ, Ramsay RE, Murphy JV, Karas BJ, Marquardt K, Hammond EJ. Comparison of valproic acid and phenytoin in newly diagnosed tonic-clonic seizures. Neurology 1983 Nov;33(11):1474-6. PMID: 6415511.
Valproic acid was slightly more effective than phenytoin in controlling generalized tonic-clonic seizures.
Sato S, White BG, Penry JK, et al. Valproic acid versus ethosuximide in the treatment of absence seizures.Neurology 1982 Feb;32(2):157-63. PMID: 6798490.
Valproic acid and ethosuximide were equally effective against both newly diagnosed and refractory absence seizures.
