evaluation of incidence of hypothyroidism in children treated with antiepileptic drugs in khorramabad shahid madani hospital in the second six months of the year 2008

hypothyroidism is one of the problems that can cause severe growth and developmental defects in children and infants. by using anticonvulsive drugs (phenobarbital, carbamazepine, navalproate , and phenytoin), liver microsomal enzymes will be increased and will lead to hypothyroidism in infants because of increasing metabolism of t3, and t4 by liver. the purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of hypothyroidism in children referring to the clinic of shahid madani hospital in khrorramabad with anticonvulsive drug treatment during fall, 2008, and winter, 2009. materials and methods: in this study, the samples were collected from the children referring to the clinic of shahid madani hospital in fall, 2008, and winter, 2009. the patients were taking anticonvulsive drugs and had the acceptance criteria including the age range of 3 months to 13 years old, using anticonvulsive drugs at least for 2 months, having abnormal eeg, etc. the data gathering instrument was a questionnaire containing the demographic information including age, gender, type of drug, duration of using drugs, etc. the lab data (t3ur, t4, and tsh) were analyzed after they were collected. results: among 38 referring epileptic children taking anticonvulsive drugs, 4 (10.5%) patients had hypothyroid so that 2 (5.25%) of them were clinical hypothyroid, and 2 (5.25%) were subclinical hypothyroid. moreover, 2 out of the 4 patients(50%) were girls and 2 (50%) were boys, and the mean age was 6.5 2 years with the median of 6.5 years. conclusion: the prevalence of hypothyroidism in patients with anticonvulsive drugs treatment in the clinic of shahid madani hospital during fall, 2008, and winter, 2009 was 10.5%. so, there was no significant relationship between age and gender. a significant relationship was found between duration of using anticonvulsive drugs and hypothyroidism in children.