Effects of antiepileptic drugs on dynamic thiol/disulphide homeostasis in children with idiopathic epilepsy

•Dynamic thiol disulphide homeostasis status has critical roles in antioxidant protection.•Antiepileptic drug treatment may significantly effect thiol disulphide homeostasis.•The total thiol and native thiol levels were significantly effected in the valproic acid group.•The total thiol and native thiol levels were not significantly effected in the carbamazepine group. Anti-epileptic drugs have been widely used in children with epilepsy. Although several studies have investigated the role of oxidative stress and the effects of antiepileptic drugs on several oxidative markers in epilepsy, adequate information is not available on this issue. This study aimed to investigate the changes in thiol disulphide homeostasis in children with epilepsy under two commonly prescribed AED monotherapies, carbamazepine and valproic acid. A hundred and one children with epilepsy using valproic acid or carbamazepine and 58 healthy children were included in this study. Of the 101 patients with idiopathic epilepsy, 58 were on valproic acid monotherapy and 43 patients were on carbamazepine monotherapy. The total thiol, native thiol, and disulphide levels were measured and the disulphide/native thiol, disulphide/total thiol and native thiol/total thiol ratios were calculated in both groups. The total thiol and native thiol levels of the valproic acid treated group were significantly lower than the control group (p