Anticonvulsant and central nervous system-depressing bis(fluorophenyl)alkylamides and their uses

Abstract

Bis(Fluorophenyl)alkylamides have been chemically synthesized which possess beneficial pharmacological properties (e.g., anticonvulsant activity) useful for the treatment of neurological diseases or disorders, such as, for example, epilepsy, convulsions, and seizure disorders. The preferred compounds of the invention also cause little sedation and have high therapeutic and protective indices in animal models of epilepsy. These compounds further possess long pharmacological half-lives, which, in practical clinical therapeutic application, should translate into once-a-day dosing, of great benefit to patients suffering from these diseases and/or disorders. These compounds may also be of further clinical utility in the treatment of other diseases and disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems, or diseases or disorders affected by them, including, but not limited to, spasticity, skeletal muscle spasms and pain, restless leg syndrome, anxiety and stress, and bipolar disorder.