THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CLONAZEPAM ON THE ROLANDIC DISCHARGES

Rolandic discharge (RD), noted in the electroencephalography (EEG) of patients with benign epilepsy in childhood with centrotemporal spikes (BECCT) has several unique features. One feature is that the amount or frequency of RDs does not correlate well with the incidence of seizur es in BECCT although it is a key finding in the diagnosis of this epil eptic syndrome. In this study, we examined the efficacy of antiepilept ic drugs focusing on the disappearance of RDs in relationship with sei zure control. Forty patients with BECCT who were not medically treated prior to this study were randomly sorted into three groups. Twenty pa tients were assigned for clonazepam (CZP) treatment, 10 patients for v alproate (VPA) and the remaining 10 patients for carbamazepine (CBZ). Each drug was administered for 4 consecutive weeks. EEGs were recorded twice during the study, before and 4 weeks after the medication trial , The effects of each treatment on RDs were assessed. RDs disappeared in 15 of the 20 cases treated with CZP (75%) within 4 weeks while the same was observed in only one of the 10 cases treated with VPA (10%). CBZ failed to demonstrate any effect on RD. In the group treated with CZP, there were no differences in seizure incidence, seizure type and blood concentration of CZP between the patients whose RDs disappeared and those whose RDs remained. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.