Antiepileptic Drugs and Their Dual Mechanism of Action on Carbonic Anhydrase.

(1) Background: The benefit of using inhibitors of carbonic anhydrase (CA), such as acetazolamide, in the treatment of epilepsy has previously been described. (2) Methods: In this paper, the effect on CA of the most well-known antiepileptic drugs was studied in vitro and in vivo. The effects, after chronic treatment, of carbamazepine, phenytoin, valproate, primidone, clonazepam, and ethosuximide were studied in vitro on purified CA, isozyme I (CA I) and CA, and isozyme II (CA II) activity and in vivo on epileptic erythrocyte CA I and CA II activity.