Treatment of children with a paroxysmal electroencephalogram without seizures
Etchepareborda, M.C.
Revista de Neurologia 37(3): 293-297
2003
ISSN/ISBN: 0210-0010 PMID: 12938063 Document Number: 552380
The paroxysmal and focal alterations in the electroencephalogram (EEG) of subjects who have never experienced epileptic seizures may be associated with neurodevelopmental disorders in infancy. To determine the true behaviour of the bioelectrical manifestation we have developed a therapeutic protocol with anticonvulsive drugs to enable us to evaluate the degree of clinical improvement along with that of the bioelectrical resolution. Four groups of patients were selected with 10 patients in each group, allocated according to their clinical diagnosis. The study groups were made up of patients suffering from language and speech disorders (LSD), specific learning difficulties (SLD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a fourth group with mixed neuropsychological symptoms (MNS). A linear relation was found between the behaviour of the clinical progress and the electroencephalographic progress in the groups with LSD and ADHD, and to a lesser extent with the MNS and SLD groups. Clinical progress was considered to be successful in three of the 10 children studied in group A (LSD), in one of the 10 in group B (SLD), in two of the ten belonging to group C (ADHD), and in three of the 10 subjects in group D (MNS). The pharmacological treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders, with an abnormal EEG pattern and no seizures, was found to behave favourably in 80% of the cases for the four groups under study. The presence of an EEG-4 pattern, slow focal activity, was indicative of a regular clinical prognosis.