title: Efficacy of pregabalin in childhood refractory partial seizure.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  About one third of partial seizures are refractory to treatment. Several anticonvulsant drugs have entered the market in recent decades but concerns about intolerance, drug interactions, and the safety of the drug are notable. One of these new anticonvulsants is pregabalin, a safe drug with almost no interaction with other antiepileptic drugs.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this open label clinical trial study, pregabalin was used for evaluation of its efficacy on reducing seizure frequency in 29 children suffering from refractory partial seizures. Average daily and weekly seizure frequency of the patients was recorded during a 6-week period (baseline period). Then, during a period of 2 weeks (titration period), pregabalin was started with a dose of 25-75 mg/d, using method of flexible dose, and was brought to maximum dose of drug that was intended in this study (450 mg/d) based on clinical response of the patients and seizure frequency. Then the patients were given the drug for 12 weeks and the average frequency of daily and weekly seizures were recorded again (treatment period). Findings : Reduction in seizure frequency in this study was 36% and the responder rate or number of patients who gained more than 50% reduction in seizure frequency was 51.7%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed that pregabalin can be used with safety and an acceptable efficacy in treatment of childhood refractory partial seizures.
authors: Department of Pediatric Neurology.
authors: Gholamreza
authors: G
authors: Zamani
authors: Department of Pediatric Neurology.
authors: Alireza
authors: A
authors: Tavasoli
authors: Research Center for Immunodeficiencies, Pediatrics Center of Excellence, Children's Medical Center.
authors: Ameneh
authors: A
authors: Zare-Shahabadi
authors: Research Center for Immunodeficiencies, Pediatrics Center of Excellence, Children's Medical Center ; Department of Immunology, Molecular Immunology Research Center.
authors: Nima
authors: N
authors: Rezaei
authors: Department of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Alireza
authors: A
authors: Ahmadvand
keywords: Children; Clinical trial; Pregabalin; Refractory Partial Seizure; Seizure