efficacy and safety of lamotrigine in lennox - gastaut syndrome

objective the lennox-gastaut syndrome (lgs), one of the most difficult epilepsy syndromes to treat, is characterized by a triad of intractable seizures of various types, a slow (< 2.5-hertz) spike-wave pattern in eeg and mental retardation. the aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of lamotrigine as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy of children with lgs. materials & methods in a quasi- experimental study, 40 children with lgs referred to the pediatric neurology clinic of shaheed sadoughi hospital in yazd, between august 2007 and to november 2008, were evaluated. results twenty-two boys and 18 girls with a mean age of 4.12 ±1.8 years were evaluated. at the end of three months of treatment with lamotrigine, 12 % were seizure free, 52% had> 50% reduction in seizure frequency and 12% had increase in seizures. means of seizure frequency/per week, before and after treatment were 70 (range 1-180) and 18.6 (range 0-60) respectively, indicating effectiveness of the drug in seizure reduction (p value = 0.003). the drug was effective in 72 % of mixed type seizures, 40 % of generalized tonic-clonic and 33% of drop attack and tonic seizures. transient side effects were seen in 12.5 % (drowsiness in 3 and ataxia in 2 children). no serious side effects were seen. conclusion lamotrigine should be considered as an add-on therapy in management of intractable epilepsy in lgs.