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Abstract

I very much appreciate the comments of Romigi et al. regarding their recent experience with the use of oxcarbazepine in nocturnal frontal-lobe epilepsy. As they mentioned, carbamazepine is generally considered the first-choice treatment in nocturnal frontal-lobe epilepsy, with a proposed mechanism of action through the inhibitory effects of hyperfunctional, mutated neuronal acetylcholine receptors. With a similar chemical structure, oxcarbazepine likely shares such a mechanism of action in nocturnal frontal-lobe epilepsy, and topiramate might share also this mechanism of action. I agree that the observations of better efficacy with these antiepileptic drugs in nocturnal frontal-lobe epilepsy, compared with other antiepileptic drugs, are of significance, and such observations will likely help guide the design of studies to elucidate the pathophysiology of nocturnal frontal-lobe epilepsy. Oxcarbazepine in Nocturnal Frontal-Lobe Epilepsy: A Further Interesting ReportPediatric NeurologyVol. 39Issue 4PreviewWe read with great interest the article by Raju et al. [1] concerning the efficacy of oxcarbazepine in children with nocturnal frontal-lobe epilepsy. This study solicited a further interesting report. We recently observed a 13-year-old boy affected by untreated nocturnal frontal-lobe epilepsy, manifesting nocturnal paroxysmal arousals with dystonic and dyskinetic movements of the upper and lower limbs (2-3 episodes per night) since age 11 years. The patient experienced 3 generalized tonic-clonic seizures triggered by sleep deprivation in the 2 months before our evaluation. Full-Text PDF