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The Effect of Phenytoin and Carbamazepine on Serum Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate in Men and Women Who Have Partial Seizures with Temporal Lobe Involvement ^*

Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Charles A. Dana Research Institute, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts 02215
Departments of Obstetrics and Neurology, Charles A. Dana Research Institute, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Address requests for reprints to: L. Levesque, Gyn-Endocrine Laboratory, Beth Israel Hospital, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215.

In a study of 16 men and 55 women with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), we found that the serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) level was significantly lower (P < 0.05) in patients who were treated with phenytoin (mean ± SD DHEA-S in men, 685 ± 429 ng/ml; in women, 580 ± 289), carbamazepine (women, 779 ± 529), or a combination of the two drugs (men, 491 ± 246; women, 474 ± 284) than in age- and sexmatched untreated patients (men, 2634 418; women, 2011 ± 1435) or in normal subjects (men, 2870 ± 1052; women, 1764 ± 617). DHEA-S values in the treated groups did not differ from one another. The DHEA-S levels in untreated patients with TLE did not differ significantly from those in normal subjects. TLE alone, therefore, is unlikely to account for the decrease in DHEA-S, and thus, the results suggest that the antiseizure medications are capable of reducing DHEA-S levels. These findings are important because DHEA-S levels are often measured as part of a battery of tests to assess endocrine function in conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, which may be over-represented among women with TLE.

^* This work was supported in part by Grant RR-01032 from the General Clinical Research Center Program of the Division of Research Resources, NIH. Data analysis was performed on the Core Lab computer facilities.

Received April 15, 1985.

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