TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY IN CHILDREN: SPECIAL PHARMACEUTICAL FORMS

Abstract

treatment of epilepsy in children poses a number of difficulties. This is due to the versatility of epileptic syndromes and epilepsy forms in children and to the problem of age limitations to the use of antiepileptic drugs (AED). The use of tableted drugs is often complicated in younger children. AED tablets are sometimes indivisible, or can be divided only in half. In many cases this is not enough to give the child the initial dose of the drug. At the same time, the metabolism of AED in children has its specifics, which permits to administer higher daily doses compared with adult patients. Therefore, it is recommended to administer special pharmaceutical forms of AED, including those that allow prolonged release of the active ingredient. The article presents information concerning modern AED that have special pharmaceutical forms for the treatment of epilepsy in children.

Keywords

• antiepileptic drugs
• epilepsy
• prolonged-release valproate