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Abstract

Anticonvulsants such as phenytoin, phenobarbital, topiramate, carbamazepine and valproate due to their beneficial effects and economic benefits in compare to new drugs are used more but these drugs are not harmless and sometimes had dangerous, safe and reversible side effects. Reduction of the nervous conduction velocity (NCV) is the common side effect of these drugs and it is of clinically importance if it is severe especially in treated children. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate and compare the effect of each drug on NCV. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of antiepileptic drugs on NCV. In this quasi-experimental study, 125 children with seizure were randomly selected and divided into six equal size groups which received phenytoin, phenobarbital, topiramate, valproate, carbamazepine and one group as control which no received anti-epileptic drug. Sensory and motor neural conduction velocity were measured and recorded for all children in groups. Collected data were analyzed by statistical methods in SPSS version 19. All of anticonvulsants were reduced the NCV in children but among all drugs, phenobarbital and phenytoin had the least and most impact on the NCV. The changes in NCV were not related to the age and gender of children. Results showed that the anticonvulsants had similar impact on NCV in generally but future studies are recommended by considering the other effective variables on response to drug.