Influence of Levetiracetam adjunctive therapy on cognitive function and life quality in school-age children with refractory epilepsy / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To examine the influence of LEV adjunctive treatment on cognitive function and life quality in RE school-age children. Methods Fifty-five cases of RE children were selected from our hospital from June 2013 to December 2015. Based on original treatment all children were added with LEV treatment for 16 weeks. The initial dose was 8~10 mg/(kg·d),and gradually increased to 50 mg/(kg·d). maintenance dose was 30 mg/(kg·d). Adverse drug reac?tions were recorded and clinical efficacies were determined after treatment. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children re?vised in China (WISC-CR) and quality of life in children with epilepsy (QOLCE) was used to evaluate children's cogni?tive function and children's life quality, respectvely. Results Average epilepsy attack frequencies after treatment (3.8± 1.3 vs. 6.6±2.3) times/month decreased significantly compared with before treatment (P<0.05). Clinical control ratio, ex?cellent ratio, effective ratio and ineffective ratio after treatment were 9.1%, 36.4%, 43.6%, 36.4%respectively and total effective ratio was 89.1%. The arithmetic score (10.9 ± 2.6 vs. 9.2 ± 2.1) and mapping score (15.1 ± 3.9 vs. 13.8 ± 3.3) in WISC- CR evaluation increased significantly (P<0.05). Life quality score (65.7 ± 5.7 vs. 62.8 ± 4.9) , cognitive function score (60.0 ± 5.7 vs. 57.4 ± 6.2) and social function score (65.0 ± 6.3 vs. 62.5 ± 5.5) after treatment in QOLCE evaluation in?creased significantly (P<0.05). During medication, the incidences of dizziness, fatigue, lethargy, irritability, euphoria and transient aminotransferase elevation were 12.7%, 9.1%, 20.0%, 9.1%, 3.6%and 3.6%respectively. Sixteen week medica?tion retention rate was 96.4%. Conclusion LEV adjunctive treatment can significantly reduce epilepsy attacks and im?prove cognitive function and life quality in RE children, but attention should be paid to LEV's influence on mental behavior.