WHAT DOCTORS READ:EPILEPSY: WHEN DRUGS ARE STOPPED

The sudden stopping of drug therapy to epileptic children does not increase the risk of seizure.

Doctors have been unsure whether to slowly withdraw children from drugs if they had not had a seizure in more than two years.

A study team from the North Carolina University studied two groups of children with epilepsy, one to be taken off drugs over a short period of six weeks, the other over a longer period of nine months.

Researchers found the risk of seizure was not increased in either group, concluding that a sudden stopping of epilepsy drugs is not detrimental.

!ANew Eng J of Med, 19 May 1994.