Route of Administration: For oral use.
Adults: Monotherapy: Adults and adolescents from 16 years of age: The recommended starting dose is 250 mg twice daily which should be increased to an initial therapeutic dose of 500 mg twice daily after two weeks. The dose can be further increased by 250 mg twice daily every two weeks depending upon the clinical response. The maximum dose is 1500 mg twice daily.
Add-on therapy: Adults (≥ 18 years) and adolescents (12 to 17 years) weighing 50 kg or more: The initial therapeutic dose is 500 mg twice daily. This dose can be started on the first day of treatment.
Depending upon the clinical response and tolerability, the daily dose can be increased up to 1500 mg twice daily. Dose changes can be made in 500 mg twice daily increases or decreases every two to four weeks.
Children: The physician should prescribe the most appropriate pharmaceutical form, presentation and strength according to age, weight and dose.
The tablet formulation is not adapted for use in children under the age of 6 years and is not appropriate for initial treatment in children weighing less than 25 kg, for patients unable to swallow tablets or for the administration of doses below 250 mg.
Infants and children less than 4 years: There are insufficient data to recommend the use of levetiracetam in children under 4 years of age.
Monotherapy: The safety and efficacy of levetiracetam in children and adolescents below 16 years as monotherapy treatment have not been established.
There are no data available.
Add-on therapy for children aged 4 to 11 years and adolescents (12 to 17 years) weighing less than 50 kg: The tablet formulation is not adapted for use in children under the age of 6 years and is not appropriate for initial treatment in children weighing less than 25 kg, for patients unable to swallow tablets or for the administration of doses below 250 mg.
The initial therapeutic dose is 10 mg/kg twice daily.
Depending upon the clinical response and tolerability, the dose can be increased up to 30 mg/kg twice daily. Dose changes should not exceed increases or decreases of 10 mg/kg twice daily every two weeks. The lowest effective dose should be used.
Dose in children 50 kg or greater is the same as in adults. (See Table 1.)
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Elderly: Adjustment of the dose is recommended in elderly patients with compromised renal function.
Renal impairment: The daily dose must be individualised according to renal function (see Precautions).
For adult patients, refer to the following table and adjust the dose as indicated. To use this dosing table, an estimate of the patient's creatinine clearance (CLcr) in ml/min is needed. The CLcr in ml/min may be estimated from serum creatinine (mg/dl) determination, for adults and adolescents weighing 50 kg or more, using the following formula: See Equation 1 and Table 2.
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For children with renal impairment, levetiracetam dose needs to be adjusted based on the renal function as levetiracetam clearance is related to renal function. This recommendation is based on a study in adult renally impaired patients.
The CLcr in ml/min/1.73 m2 may be estimated from serum creatinine (mg/dl) determination using, for young adolescents and children using the following formula (Schwartz formula): See Equation 2 and Table 3.
![](https://mpfshstrg.blob.core.windows.net/mpf-uat-common-resources/Images/monograph/table.gif)
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Hepatic impairment: No dose adjustment is needed in patients with mild to moderate hepatic impairment. In patients with severe hepatic impairment, the creatinine clearance may underestimate the renal insufficiency. Therefore a 50 % reduction of the daily maintenance dose is recommended when the creatinine clearance is < 60 ml/min/1.73m2.