All major antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have been reported to be associated with cognitive side effects and one of the most common questions being asked by patients in the OPD department is whether or not the drugs they are taking affects their memory and cognition. To better address these questions, we performed a meta-analysis on the cognitive effects of different AED's.

This study was conducted to determine which of the anti-epileptic drugs commonly being used in our setting have the most significant cognitive effects, particularly in the areas of memory, cognitive/ motorspeed, and subjective mood measures.

Through PubMed, Ovid and additional searches by hand, were searched to identify RCTs that have studied the effects of AED's on cognition. We searched for studies where the subjects underwent neuropsychological testing, particularly those evaluating memory, cognitive/motorspeed, and subjective mood measures. Common variables in these studies were then compiled and analyzed as continuous data using the Review Manager 4.2 software. We compared the baseline results (control), with the results of the treatment group.