Efficacy and safety of lamotrigine in refractory epilepsy of children

Abstract

Abstract. It  is  known that  current  antiepileptic drugs can  not  control  seizures  in 20-30%  of patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of lamotrigine as add-on therapy in intractable epileptic children in   Yazd- Iran. In  a  drug  study, 42   children with   mean age of 5/35 ± 4 years, 23  boys  and  19 girls  with     refractory   seizures and  seeking  treatment,   recruited   to be    subjects   of  this   study. Mixed  and  myoclonic  were the most common seizure types ( 38% and 31% respectively). At  the  end   of   three   months  of  lamotrigine treatment  concomitantly  with previous  AED, 31%   became   seizure   free, 35.7%  had   more  than   50% reduction  in seizure   frequency  and  12% had   increasing   seizures. All of seizures in absence and juvenile myoclonic epilepsies stopped with lamotrigine. Good drug response (stopping of   seizures or > 50% of reduction in seizure frequency) was seen in 100% of idiopathic, 67% of cryptogenic and 54% of symptomatic epilepsies.  75% of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and progressive myoclonic epilepsy and 33% of West syndrome had good response. Drug rash was seen in 6.7% of children and serious hematologic abnormality, hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity side effects were not seen. Lamotrigine can be considered as an effective and safe drug   in controlling of intractable epilepsy of children especially in absence and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.

Key words: Refractory  epilepsy, lamotrigine, add-on therapy, children

Keywords

• Refractory epilepsy, lamotrigine, add-on therapy, children

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