CLINICAL AND ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING THE EFFECT OF TRIDIONE IN EPILEPTIC PATIENTS

1. Clinical results.

Tridione was administered to 75 patients suffering from epilepsy. Clinically, tridione appears to be most effective in cases of epilepsy with spastic cerebral palsies of the milder type; 65% of this group were improved. This is particularly true in children with mild attacks or with mild organic impairment whose seizures are less severe and in whom the manifestations observed are of more recent origin.

Sixty percent of the patients who had petit mal seizures were improved. Tnidione was of value in one-half of the patients who experienced psychomotor attacks.

Only 30% of the patients with grand mal seizures improved. Tridione appears to be of no value in the myoclonias observed at Craig Colony.

2. EEG. observations.

Thirty-eight or 51% of the patients manifested EEG. improvement. Beneficial effect on the EEG. record and clinical reduction of seizures were not always concomitant. In 17 patients in whom clinical improvement was not present, the EEG. record showed improvement, and 15 cases who showed clinical improvement showed no change in the EEG.

Clinically the spastic type responded best; 65% of these cases were improved. The petit mals showed 60% improvement. Electroencephalographically, the petit mal type responded best; 67% of the petit mal cases showed improvement on the EEG. tracing, whereas only 52% of the spastic group showed diminution of abnormal waves. In the psychomotor group 50% were improved clinically and 58% showed EEG. improvement.

Patients manifesting the higher amplitude, slower waves, responded best. The so-called psychomotor waves were eliminated fairly frequently. Diminution in amplitude of waves was frequently present.

3. Toxic manifestations.

Toxic reactions occurred in inverse proportion to clinical improvement. Untoward effects were observed most often in the myoclonic type, grand mal, and psychomotor group. Toxic reactions were observed least in the spastic group (9%) and in the petit mal type (13%). In younger individuals only 15% showed toxic effects, while in the older group 25% experienced unfavorable reactions. However, the toxic effects did not influence EEG. improvement as adversely as they did the clinical picture.