Efficacy and safety of lamotrigine in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

Objective The Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), one of the most difficult epilepsy syndromes to treat, is characterized by a triad of intractable seizures of various types, a slow ( 50% reduction in seizure frequency and 12% had increase in seizures. Means of seizure frequency/per week, before and after treatment were 70 (range 1-180) and 18.6 (range 0-60) respectively, indicating effectiveness of the drug in seizure reduction (P value = 0.003). The drug was effective in 72 % of mixed type seizures, 40 % of generalized tonic-clonic and 33% of drop attack and tonic seizures. Transient side effects were seen in 12.5 % (drowsiness in 3 and ataxia in 2 children). No serious side effects were seen. Conclusion Lamotrigine should be considered as an add-on therapy in management of intractable epilepsy in LGS.