The pooled data on efficacy and safety of perampanel in adolescents showed an overall favorable risk–benefit profile without alterations of hematologic and clinical chemistry values, vital signs, mean electrocardiogram parameters or skin photosensitivity [
17]. The most common treatment emerging adverse events (TEAEs) observed in ≥10% of adolescents patients were: dizziness (20.4%), somnolence (15.3%), aggression (8.2%), decreased appetite (6.1%), and rhinitis (5.1%). During the extension study dizziness (13.2%), somnolence (11.6%), and aggression (6.6%) were the adverse events most often leading to perampanel interruption/dose adjustment. The discontinuation rate due to TEAEs was 14.9% with a rate of serious adverse events of 14.0%. A lower incidence of TEAEs was achieved with a slower titration rate, and adverse events were usually reversible with perampanel discontinuation or with dose adjustment. Perampanel was associated with a 10% worsening of seizures mainly related to intensity and duration of seizures rather than to their frequency in a retrospective real-life study [
20]; in RCTs seizure worsening (defined as an increase in seizure frequency > 50%) was observed in 8-11% of cases versus 13% of placebo [
20,
25]. A single study on 24 children treated with perampanel showed that adverse events were more frequent in children older than 12 years than in younger ones [
26].
An important note should be made to “serious psychiatric and behavioral reactions” which are listed by FDA as potential adverse effects of perampanel. Some recent real life studies, although performed in adult patients, confirm the common occurrence of these adverse events [
27‐
29]. The pooled analysis deriving from the three phase III trials and open label extension study revealed that among the 143 treated, aggression was a complaint in 8.2% [
17]. Extrapolating data for patients in pediatric age from other observational studies, data on psychiatric adverse events of 355 subjects up to 18 years of age are available. Among them, challenging behavior (including aggressiveness, irritability and general behavioral disturbances) has been described in 11% [
18‐
20,
30,
31]. A relationship between daily dose of perampanel and psychiatric adverse events has been described, with challenging behavior being more common for higher doses up to 12 mg [
32]. Furthermore, these events are much more frequent in the first 6 weeks of treatment, that is the titration phase in clinical studies, although patients could experience new psychiatric events after the initial titration period [
32]. The majority of subjects complaining challenging behavior continued the treatment with perampanel, although some at reduced doses, supporting the notion that these psychiatric events can be manageable [
32]. However, discontinuation due to psychiatric adverse events occurred in 2.5% of cases in phase III trials [
32]. The data available up to now do not allow us to establish if a previous history of psychiatric illness confers a higher risk for developing psychiatric side effects due to perampanel treatment. Since most clinical trials exclude patients with active psychiatric symptoms, real-world data will provide further information on this issue [
18]. The results of a recent retrospective study on 464 subjects (
n = 21 adolescents) treated with perampanel for 12 months suggest that patients with a history of hyperactivity and personality disorders are more likely to develop psychiatric adverse events than those without [
33].
Since many AEDs may cause cognitive side effects, it is important to evaluate the impact of every new AED on cognitive functions. For this purpose, the primary objective of a phase II randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 133 adolescent patients with uncontrolled focal seizures was to assess the impact of perampanel on cognitive functions through an automated system, the Cognitive Drug Research (CDR) system. After 19 weeks of treatment, changes from baseline in the CDR system global cognition score were similar between patients randomized to perampanel and those who received placebo (
p = 0.145), therefore it was concluded that perampanel may have a favorable cognitive profile [
31].