Discontinuation of anti-epileptic therapy: a retrospective study of 86 children and adolescents.

In order to identify any predictive factors of relapse after the discontinuation of anticonvulsive therapy, a catamnestic study was made of 86 epileptic children and adolescents who had started or completed the withdrawal of AEDs. Their clinical records were examined retrospectively, and univariate analysis showed that the factors which correlated significantly with a higher relapse rate were the age at the time of reducing treatment, the presence of more than 30 generalised or partial tonic-clonic seizures, the presence of febrile seizures, the duration of the active phase of the disease, the duration of therapy, and the coexistence of more than one type of seizure. At multivariate analysis, only the presence of 30 generalised or partial tonic-clonic seizures and febrile seizures were significant. Given the small size of the diagnostic subgroups, no significant correlation could be demonstrated between epileptological diagnosis and the risk of recurrence.