title: First-drug treatment failures in children with typical absence epilepsy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) is a well-known syndrome with onset in middle childhood and is characterized by multiple typical absences per day. Pharmacological treatment is specific and usually successful with a single medication. The goal of the study was to assess on risk factors associated with failure to respond to the initial antiepileptic drug (AED).
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-two children with CAE were enrolled. Predictive factors were analyzed by survival methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 52 patients, 32 patients (61.5%) were girls and the remaining 20 (38.5%) were boys and the mean age at the seizure onset was 6.5±1.78 years old (3-11.5 years). Of the 52 patients, 42 (80.8%) were treated relatively successfully with the first AED treatment (Group A), and 10 (19.2%) were not responsed (Group B). Age of seizure onset, coexisting other types of seizures, and photoconvulsive EEG response were significantly associated with failure risk according to univariate analysis. In the multivariate analysis, only photoconvulsive EEG response was the risk factor influencing poor response to initial AED treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Factors predicting failure to respond to the AED were age of seizure onset, coexisting other types of seizures, and photoconvulsive EEG response in children with CAE.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. Electronic address: fincecik@cu.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Faruk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Incecik
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sakir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Altunbasak
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ozlem M
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Herguner
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004832:Epilepsy, Absence / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D017211:Treatment Failure
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants
keywords: Childhood absence epilepsy; Failure risk factors or predicting factors; First antiepileptic drug; Photoconvulsive EEG response