Amantadine treatment following traumatic brain injury in children.
OBJECTIVE
The focus of this paper is to review the current literature on the use of amantadine in children who have sustained a head injury.


RESULTS
A MEDLINE search was conducted and yielded five papers. They were composed of prospective, retrospective and case study designs. Dosage use and side effect profiles were consistent with expected norms. Efficacy was measures primarily by alertness and arousal and positive results were found for all studies on these dimensions. Behavioural and cognitive measures of outcome yielded mixed results.


CONCLUSIONS
The studies reviewed for this paper suggest that amantadine is clinically beneficial for children who have sustained head injuries. Double blind placebo controlled trials with larger sample sizes are needed to further substantiate these findings.
Williams
Sharon E
SE
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5719, USA. sharonw@stanford.edu
D000547:Amantadine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D015259:Dopamine Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D015259:Dopamine Agents; D000547:Amantadine