neonatal seizures

[mini110]

My child had seizures in her first week of life, is been doing well since then on phenobarbital. She is now 8 mths old but just does not want to crawl. Otherwise she seems to be doing well mentally. She has good communication skills etc...I want to make sure that her physical development will not be impaired by the medicine????


This discussion is related to Benign Familial Neonatal Seizures.

[drrajgopal18]

Hi,
Your child seems to tolerate the drug well. But the long term use is a matter of concern .Tolerance, psychological dependence, and physical dependence may occur especially following prolonged use of high doses of phenobarbital. As tolerance to phenobarbital develops, the amount needed to maintain the same level of intoxication increases; tolerance to a fatal dosage, however, does not increase more than two-fold. As this occurs, the margin between an intoxicating dosage and fatal dosage becomes smaller. Symptoms of acute intoxication with phenobarbital include unsteady gait, slurred speech, and sustained nystagmus. Mental signs of chronic intoxication include confusion, poor judgment, irritability, insomnia, and somatic complaints . Please consult  a neurologist and discuss this with him . If the drug is discontinued after some time , you need not worry . Hope this helps you . Take care and regards !

[geraldine24]

Our child had seizures in his first week of life and kept on seizing during the first 6 months of his live when he was treated with Luminal (phenobarbital). The seizures stopped after moving him to Depakine. Our son is now 7 years old and is free of seizures. However he was diagnosis with Persuasive Development Disorder PDD-NOS and a low IQ of 80. I have been reading some alarming study on the internet about the impact of phenobarbital on the development of the child and I am wonder how much those studies are fonded. I regret I did not question the choice of this medication at the time.