Abstracts

RATIONALE: Physical maturation is one of the essential developmental processes during childhood and adolescence, which can be adversely affected by a number of internal and external factors. An important side effect associated with the long-term use of some antiepileptic drugs is change in body weight, followed by an increased risk for subsequent maturational problems in pediatric epilepsy patients. METHODS: Weight, height and body mass index values of 103 pediatric epilepsy patients (m/f ratio: 53/50) successfully treated with lamotrigine monotherapy due to partial (n = 30) or generalized seizures (n = 73) were prospectively evaluated for a period of 18.7 11.8 months (range: 6-71). Absolute parameters were transformed in standard deviation scores using normative data from healthy pediatric mid-European populations, to obtain age and sex-independent maturation scores. RESULTS: _Age at therapy introduction was 6.7 2.7 years (range: 2.6 - 16.4) and daily lamotrigine dose was 7.4 2.2 mg/kg (range: 3.5 - 14.2). Standard deviation scores (SDS) at therapy initiation vs. follow-up were: height-SDS: 0.07 0.42 vs. 0.08 0.42 (p=n.s.); weight-SDS: -0.01 0.44 vs. -0.01 0.43 (p=n.s.) and BMI-SDS: -0.24 0.47 vs. -0.24 0.37 (p=n.s.). CONCLUSIONS: Lamotrigine long-term monotherapy was associated with normal growth development in pediatric and adolescent patients with epilepsy, regardless of patient age, gender or duration of therapy.