SUBJECTIVE SYMPTOMS IN EPILEPTIC PATIENTS ON ANTICONVULSANT DRUGS. A Controlled Therapeutic Trial on the Effect of Vitamin D

The possibility (based on the recognised existence of anticonvulsant osteomalacia), of an osteomalacic origin of a number of subjective symptoms in epileptics (back pain, tiredness, sleepiness, irritability, and giddiness) was tested during a controlled therapeutic trial in 226 outpatients. There was no correlation between subjective symptoms and objective pathological indices of osteomalacia, and the group treated with vitamin D (2000 international units daily for 3 months) showed no amelioration of subjective symptoms above that seen in the placebo group. The findings do not support the view that all epileptic patients on anticonvulsant therapy should be treated prophylactically with vitamin D.