Seizures induced or aggravated by anticonvulsants

Six cases of epileptic children are reported, in whom anticonvulsant therapy, aggravated rather than controlled the seizures or induced minor seizures. This was caused by excessive polytherapy in one case and by the use of the inappropriate drug (for that type of epilepsy) in four other cases. In the sixth case, the appropriate anticonvulsant was used, but it induced multiple astatic-myoclonic seizures. This phenomenon of drug-induced seizures is apt to occur particularly in certain types of childhood epilepsy that are refractory to therapy and are accompanied by slow spike-wave discharges in the EEG, such as the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.