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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new study reveals it is generally safe to stop anti-seizure medications in children with epilepsy who have been seizure-free while on the treatment.
Epilepsy, characterized by the occurrence of two or more seizures, affects more than three million people in the United States. Roughly 10 percent of children with epilepsy have the intractable version, where medications alone cannot control seizures that can disrupt their quality of life.
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According to Katherine Nickels, M.D., study author and a pediatric neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., doctors often recommend epileptic children who become seizure-free on anti-seizure medications stop taking the drugs to avoid side effects, such as cognitive slowing, coordination problems, weight change, behavioral decline and liver damage. However, few studies have previously investigated the risk of intractable epilepsy after stopping drugs.
Dr. Nickels and her team reviewed the medical records of 241 epileptic children, ages 1 month to 16 years. Of the 152 children treated with anti-seizure medicine, 56 children (37 percent) achieved seizure-freedom and were withdrawn from treatment. Overall, only 5 percent of those children developed intractable epilepsy,
The risk of children developing intractable epilepsy after withdrawal of anti-seizure medication was only 5 percent, which is similar to the risk of intractable epilepsy at the time of initial diagnosis of epilepsy in children, Dr. Nickels said. Therefore, the children who achieve seizure-freedom on anti-seizure medication should be considered for withdrawal without high risk of intractable epilepsy.
SOURCE: The American Epilepsy Societys annual meeting, Seattle, WA, December 7, 2008
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