The Treatment of Childhood Epilepsy With Sodium Valproate
December 1975
in “
Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology
”
Studysummary This study found that sodium valproate effectively controlled petit mal seizures in children resistant to other anticonvulsants but was less effective for other seizure types. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
Sodium valproate was used to treat 32 children with epilepsy, most of whom did not respond to other anticonvulsants. Among patients with petit mal, 10 out of 13 achieved complete control, while 4 out of 11 with grand mal experienced a reduction in seizures by more than 90%. However, none of the 8 patients with temporal lobe or myoclonic epilepsy showed improvement. The only side effect noted was temporary hair loss in one patient, although sodium valproate enhanced the side effects of other drugs like bromide, primidone, and phenytoin. Thirteen patients received doses higher than the recommended maximum of 1.4 g per day without side effects. Serum level monitoring was not very helpful, likely due to the drug's short half-life.
