title: Transient athetosis induced by tiagabine.
abstract: Movement disorders have been reported with use of different antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). We report a 32-year-old woman, affected by a symptomatic focal drug-resistant epilepsy and a mild hemiparesis, with acute athetoid movements, transiently linked to increasing tiagabine (TGB) therapy. To our knowledge, no other cases of acute athetosis related to TGB have been reported to date. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that involuntary movements were induced by an interaction between TGB and concomitant AEDs, in particular phenobarbital (PB), possibly by increasing GABAergic transmission. We hypothesize that the presence of a static encephalopathy may have influenced the kind of extrapyramidal side effect induced by TGB in our patient, leading to athetosis.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Neurologia, Università Campus Bio-Medico, Rome, Italy. m.tombini@unicampus.it
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tombini
authors.forename: Loredana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pacifici
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Passarelli
authors.forename: Paolo M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Rossini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001264:Athetosis / Q000139:chemically induced*; D001480:Basal Ganglia Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced; D004347:Drug Interactions; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009557:Nipecotic Acids / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000078308:Tiagabine
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants; D009557:Nipecotic Acids; D000078308:Tiagabine