Siezure Med Mechanisms

ON DRUG MECHANISMS
print chart from this page: http://www.e-epilepsy.org.uk/pages/articles/show_article.cfm?id=127

from Mechanisms of action of anti-epileptic drugs
Andrew Fisher, Matthew C Walker and Norman G Bowery*

Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, Institute of Neurology, UCL, London, and *Department of Pharmacology, University of Birmingham Medical School, Birmingham

THREE main mechanisms by which current drugs appear to produce their anticonvulsant activity:
1) Modulation of intrinsic membrane conductances, primarily voltage-gated cationic channels
2) Suppression of excitatory amino acid-mediated synaptic transmission
3) Enhancement of GABAergic inhibitory synaptic transmission, via post-synaptic receptor modulation, inhibition of GABA metabolism or blockade of GABA transport.
( voltage gated sodium and calcium channels, GABA, glutamate and drugs )