Both are anticonvulsants. Here is how Lamictal and Keppra compare on class, mechanism, dosing, approval and supply.
LAMICTAL is indicated for: Epilepsy—adjunctive therapy in patients aged 2 years and older: • partial-onset seizures. • primary generalized tonic-clonic (PGTC) seizures. • generalized seizures of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. ( 1.1 ) Epilepsy—monotherapy in patients aged 16 years and older: Conversion to monotherapy in patients with partial-onset seizures who are receiving treatment with carbamazepine, phenytoin, phenobarbital, primidone, or valproate as the single antiepileptic drug. ( 1.1 ) Bipolar disorder: Maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder to delay the time to occurrence of mood episodes in patients treated for acute mood episodes with standard therapy. ( 1.2 ) Limitations of Use: Treatment of acute manic or mixed episodes is not recommended. Effectiveness of LAMICTAL in the acute treatment of mood episodes has not been established. 1.1 Epilepsy Adjunctive Therapy LAMICTAL is in…
KEPPRA is indicated for the treatment of partial-onset seizures in patients 1 month of age and older ( 1.1 ) KEPPRA is indicated for adjunctive therapy for the treatment of: Myoclonic seizures in patients 12 years of age and older with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy ( 1.2 ) Primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures in patients 6 years of age and older with idiopathic generalized epilepsy ( 1.3 ) 1.1 Partial-Onset Seizures KEPPRA is indicated for the treatment of partial-onset seizures in patients 1 month of age and older. 1.2 Myoclonic Seizures in Patients with Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy KEPPRA is indicated as adjunctive therapy for the treatment of myoclonic seizures in patients 12 years of age and older with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. 1.3 Primary Generalized Tonic-Clonic Seizures KEPPRA is indicated as adjunctive therapy for the treatment of primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures i…
12.1 Mechanism of Action The precise mechanism(s) by which lamotrigine exerts its anticonvulsant action are unknown. In animal models designed to detect anticonvulsant activity, lamotrigine was effective in preventing seizure spread in the maximum electroshock (MES) and pentylenetetrazol (scMet) tests, and prevented seizures in the visually and electrically evoked after-discharge (EEAD) tests for antiepileptic activity. Lamotrigine also displayed inhibitory properties in the kindling model in rats both during kindling development and in the fully kindled state. The relevance of these models to human epilepsy, however, is not known. One proposed mechanism of action of lamotrigine, the releva…
12.1 Mechanism of Action The precise mechanism(s) by which levetiracetam exerts its antiepileptic effect is unknown. A saturable and stereoselective neuronal binding site in rat brain tissue has been described for levetiracetam. Experimental data indicate that this binding site is the synaptic vesicle protein SV2A, thought to be involved in the regulation of vesicle exocytosis. Although the molecular significance of levetiracetam binding to SV2A is not understood, levetiracetam and related analogs showed a rank order of affinity for SV2A which correlated with the potency of their antiseizure activity in audiogenic seizure-prone mice. These findings suggest that the interaction of levetirace…
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Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by the Priya Life Science editorial team, led by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 6 Aug 2026.