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Niamh's Journey

Symptoms & Treatments

Seizure Treatments in MPEI

It is unlikely that any anti-epileptic medication will ever fully control the seizures for children with MPEI.

There are a huge number of anti-convulsant drugs on the market. The drugs we know have been tried on children with MPEI are as follows: Acetazolamide (Diamox) ACTH (Adrenocorticotropic hormone) Carbamazepine (Tegretol)Clobazam Clonazepam (Rivotril)Diazepam (Valium) Dilantin (Phenytoin)Lamotrigine (Lamictal)Levetiracetam (Keppra)Lorazepam (Atvian)MidazolamNitrazepam

Long Term Drug Therapy

Phenobarbital (Phenobarbitone)Potassium bromide Prednisolone (steroid)Pyrodoxine (Vitamin B6)Sodium Valporate (Epilim)Stiripentol (Diacomit)Tiagabine (Gabitril)Topiramate (Topomax)Valproic Acid (Depakene)Vigabatrin, (Sabril)Zonisamide (Zonegran)

The best reported combination of drugs in controlling seizures in children with MPEI appears to be slightly different with each child however to date, Keppra and Topirimate have been reported to work the best for children in our support group.

The only drug that our group have reported that made their children's seizures notably worse was Lamotrigine (Lamictal).

Most drugs tried, have either not made any change to the seizures, or any initial positive effects were short lived (a few days up to max 2 weeks).

Emergency Drug Therapy.

The most successful emergency medications are reported to be IV Phenobarbital and Buccal Midazolam.

There are 2 cases of children with MPEI having VNS of whom we are aware, and it did not produce significant improvement in seizure control.

Surgery is not usually an option in children with MPEI, as the seizures originate from many different areas of the brain.

A number of children with MPEI have tried the Ketogenic Diet with varying degrees of success.
Niamh became seizure free on the diet so that was a huge success for her, other children with MPEI have noticed a decline in number or severity of their seizures, some noticed no change in the seizures but said that the diet improved their child's temperament and others saying that they noticed no difference.

A few parents have said that they believed the diet to have helped their children's seizures, however they decided to discontinue the diet due to toleration problems.

None to date have said that the diet made their child's seizures worse.

VNS - Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Brain Surgery

Ketogenic Diet