Lamotrigine in Resistant Childhood Epilepsy

Abstract

Lamotrigine (LTG) is a novel antiepileptic drug which stabilizes presynaptic neuronalmembrans by bloeking voltage sensitive sodium channels, leading to inhibition ofneurotransmitter release, particularly glutamate. A number of studies in children withintractable epilepsy suggest that lamotrigine is effective in this age group. In this open study, 26 children (10 girls and 16 boys, mean age 8,5 years) with intractable epilepsy were treated with LTG. Most of the children had several poor prognostic factors such as neurological and mental handicap, early onset of seizure and multiple seizure types. LTG was added to pre-existing antiepileptic therapy. Following addition LTG; 8 patients became seizure free, 12 patients had over 50 % seizure reduction in first 3 months. The best results were observed in atonic, absences and generalised tonic clonic seizures. Three patients showed transient, mild adverse effect and one stopped LTG treatment. Ten patients showed improvement on mental activity and behavioural pattern. It is concluded that LTG is a promising novel entiepileptic drug in childhood epilepsies, resistant to other antiepileptic drugs.