ANTIEPILEPTIC PHARMACOTHERAPY IN THE GROUP OF PATIENTS EMBRACED BY THE CARE OF DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROLOGY OUT-PATIENT CLINIC IN THREE HEALTH CENTERS. PROSPECTIVE STUDY

Objectives: Epilepsy occurs in about 1% of population and is frequent in children. Over the last few years the methods of the pharmacological therapy of epilepsy has made great progress. New antiepileptic drugs were introduced to the market, but still the 'classical' ones are commonly used. It is interesting to know which of them are the most often, and which are the less often, used in therapy of children epilepsy. The aim of our study was to analyze the effectivness, the freqency and type of the drugs used in pharmacotherapy of epilepsy in children.

Methods: The study group consisted of 722 consecutive patients presented in outpatients child-neurology clinics in three cities in Poland: Gdañsk, Łódž and Kielce. We took into consideration: number of patients on mono- and polytherapy, the frequency of administration and the efficacy of different antiepileptic drugs.

Results: The number of patients on monotherapy was 470 and the number of patients on polytherapy was 199. There were also 53 children, who experienced one or two epileptic seizures, but still received no drugs. The most frequently used medicine was valproic acid 432 patients (64.6%), whereas the most rarely used drugs were gabapentine 6 patients (0.9%) and tiagabine 6 patients (0.9%). From the new antiepileptic drugs there were also used: lamotrigine 164 patients (24.5%), topiramate 126 patients (18.8%), and oxcarbazepine 75 patients (11.2%). The highest effectiveness of the therapy was achieved by application of valproic acid 169 patients (35.96%) and carbamazepine 84 patients (17.9%) on monotherapy. The effectiveness range considered in the research was 70–100%.

Conclusion: Majority of patients profited from monotherapy mostly valproic acid and carbamazepine. Interestingly the combination of topiramate and valproic acid in polytherapy showed the highest succes rate.