The effect of long term anticonvulsant therapy on serum calcium, phosphate and alkaline phosphatase in Nigerian epileptic patients.

A survey of calcium metabolism in fifty-two epileptic patients on long term therapy with anti-convulsant drugs, showed that their total serum calcium levels were within normal limits. There was neither clinical nor radiological evidence of osteomalacia in any of them. It is postulated therefore that the osteomalacic effect of antivonculsant drugs reported among Caucasians does not appear to occur in African patients in a tropical environment most probably due to the abundance of vitamin D derived from the sun's ultra-violet light.