Seizure drug side effects

[username456789]

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How in-depth do you think is worth going in regards to this topic (p. 429 in FA specifically)? I hate just memorizing random lists of side effects. I get that the P450 inducers are important, as is Carbamazepine = aplastic anemia/agranulocytosis, the Stevens-Johnson reactions, Phenytoin causing hirsutism and gingival hyperplasia, etc. But I just really wouldn't think a question would come down to "oh crap, which of these seizure medicates causes diplopia?"

 

[rem6775]

I would remember the big ones for sure, and try to remember what is in FA. I only had one question on this on my test and it was phenytoin causing gingival hyperplasia. One of my friends who took it the same day had one of phenytoin causing generalized lymphadenopathy. So if you get one, it's likely to be a major one, but everything in FA is a good bet to cover yourself.

 

[HTxFrog]

hmm I'm looking at the page you're talking about and there are a lot of big ones on there. I would be really surprised to see some of the stuff like GI distress fatigue headache for ethosuximide, or gi distress for valproate, but almost everything else on there seems pretty high yield. I'm not big on memorizing side effects in a lot of cases. There seem to be a lot of toxicities listed for individual drugs just b/c the format for an entry on and individual drug is: mech., clinical use, toxicity, so they feel the need to put GI distress or Nausea or something that will never be asked just to have something in the toxicity category. In this case though, they have dedicated a whole little section to just side effects and a lot of those side effects are pretty serious. Aside from them being fairly serious, I have seen a lot of those toxicities come up on UWorld/USMLERx/NBMEs, so you have to assume they are asked a lot.