| Side Effects of Antiepileptic Drug in Children |
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Ick-Jin Song, Sang-Ook Nam |
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Department of Pediatrics, Pusan National University College of Medicine, Pusan, Korea |
| 소아 간질 환아에서 항경련제의 부작용에 관한 고찰 |
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송익진, 남상욱 |
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부산대학교 의과대학 소아과학교실 |
Correspondence:
Ick-Jin Song, Email: 1
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| Abstract |
Purpose
: The purpose of this study is to estimate the side effects of antiepileptic drug(AED) in children.
Methods
: Subjects were 267 children who had received AED for at least 1 month during January 1995 to July 1998. We reviewed their sex, age at start of seizure onset, age at medication, class and number of AED, developmental delay, type and cause of seizure according to the presence of side effect. We analyzed data using Student's t-test and χ2-test.
Results
: Side effects were observed in 61 of 267(22.8%) patients. There were no significant differences in their characteristics according to the presence of side effect. There were 112 episodes of complications in 61 patients. In decreasing order, CNS(38.4%) > digestive(25.9%) > hematologic(22.3%) > skin and connective tissue(7.1%) > others(6.3%). There were 12 episodes in 11 patients who should have been taken off AED due to drug eruption, drowsiness, nausea and so on. Side effects were observed in 16 of 123(6.0%) patients in monotherapy compared with 45 of 144(16.8%) patients in polytherapy, which showed significantly fewer side effects in monotherapy(P<0.05). In monotherapy, mean age at seizure onset and medication start were older(4.63±3.83, 5.85±3.86 years, respectively) than in polytherapy(2.69±3.06, 3.69±3.58 years, respectively) (P<0.05).
Conclusion
: In the data, CNS is the most common side effect(43 episodes, 38.4%) and there were significantly fewer side effects in monotherapy compared with polytherapy. Accordingly, we concluded that monotherapy is preferred over polytherapy in reducing the side effects of AED. |
| Key Words:
Antiepileptic drug(AED), Side effect, Children, Monotherapy, Polytherapy |
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