Levetiracetam for the treatment of epilepsy in children

(DGN) explicitly recommend the anticonvulsive agent levetiracetam – in addition to lamotrigine – as the agent of first choice for initial treatment of focal seizures with or without secondary generalisation from the age of 16 years onward. Furthermore, levetiracetam is indicated for additional treatment of myoclonic seizures in adults and adolescents from the age of 12 years onward with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy or primary generalised tonic-clonic seizures with idiopathic generalised epilepsy. However, for a long time the drug was not authorised for use in young children. In 2004 levetira cetam was approved in Germany for additional treatment of focal seizures in children from the age of 4 years onward. In 2010 the agent was approved for additional treatment of focal seizures in children from the age of 1 month onward. Experts unanimously agreed that this therapy option has decisively improved the treatment of epilepsy in very young patients.