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NEWS | August 29, 2013

Study finds seizure drugs equally effective in treating children

Editor's note:

Details about the study also available in Spanish and Russian.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) —

Researchers who participated in a National Institutes of Health study, including pediatric emergency medicine physicians at UC Davis Medical Center, have settled an important question on how to treat children with status epilepticus, a potentially fatal seizure disorder characterized by continuous or repeated seizures.

A new study finds that lorazepam and diazepam are equally effective in treating ongoing seizures in children. A new study finds that lorazepam and diazepam are equally effective in treating ongoing seizures in children.

For years, physicians have used one of two drugs to treat the condition: lorazepam or diazepam. Until now, the basis for treatment rested upon personal preference of the attending physician, and many physicians believed that lorazepam was better than diazepam. Now, researchers have tested both drugs head to head and found that they are equally effective.

This information will support an application for FDA aproval for the use of lorazepam to treat pediatric seizures. For more information about the results of the study, visit the Childrens National Medical Center Seizure Study.

UC Davis Children's Hospital is the Sacramento region's only nationally ranked, comprehensive hospital for children, serving infants, children, adolescents and young adults with primary, subspecialty and critical care. It includes the Central Valley's only pediatric emergency department and level I pediatric trauma center, which offers the highest level of care for critically ill children. The 129-bed children's hospital includes the state-of-the-art 49-bed neonatal and 24-bed pediatric intensive care and pediatric cardiac intensive care units. With more than 120 physicians in 33 subspecialties, UC Davis Children's Hospital has more than 74,000 clinic and hospital visits and 13,000 emergency department visits each year. For more information, visit children.ucdavis.edu.

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