the ketogenic and atkins diets effect on intractable epilepsy: a comparison

how to cite this article: ghazavi a, tonekaboni sh, karimzadeh p, nikibakhsh aa, khajeh a, fayyazi a. the ketogenic and atkins diets effect on intractable epilepsy: a comparison. iran j child neurol. 2014 summer;8(3): 12-17. abstract objective intractable epilepsy is a major difficulty in child neurology, because the numbers of drugs that are available for treatment are limited and new treatments such as diets must be tried. now there are some diets available for treating patients with intractable epilepsy. the oldest diet is the classic ketogenic diet and one of the newest diets is the modified atkins diet. patients have a harder time accepting the classic ketogenic diet than the atkins diet, which is easier to accept because the food tastes better. this study compares the efficacy of the ketogenic diet and the atkins diet for intractable epilepsy in children. materials & methods this study is a clinical trial survey with sample size of 40 children with refractory epilepsy who were patients at mofid hospital in tehran, iran. initially, from jan 2005–oct 2007, 20 children were treated with the atkins diet, and then from oct 2007–march 2010, the other group was treated with the classic ketogenic diet and the results were compared.  results in this study, response to treatment was greater than a 50% reduction in seizures and at the end of first, second, and third months for the ketogenic diet were 55%, 30%, and 70% and for the atkins diet were 50%, 65%, and 70%, respectively. conclusion the results of this study show that there is no significant difference between the classic ketogenic diet and the atkins diet at the end of first, second, and third months and both had similar responses to the treatments. references  camfield cs, canfield pr, gordon k, wirrell e, dooley jm. incidence of epilepsy in childhood and adolescents in nova scotia. epilepsia, 1996 jan;37(1):19-23. gessner u, sagmeister m, horisberger b. the cost of epilepsy in switzerland. int j health sci 1993;4:121-8. aicardi j. epilepsy in children. philadelphia: lippincott williams & wilkins; 2004. p. 38. 4. kossof eh. more fat and fewer seizures: dietary therapy ofepilepsy. lancet neurol 2004 jul;3()7):415-20. hassan am, keene dl, whiting se, jacob pj, champagne jr, humphreys p. ketogenic diet in the treatment of refractory epilepsy in childhood. pediatr. neurol. 1999; 21: 548-552. vining ep, freeman jm, ballaban-gil k, camfield cs, camfield pr, holmes gl et al. a multicenter study of the efficacy of the ketogenic diet. arch neurol 1998 nov;55(11):1433-7. nordli dr, kuroda mm. experience with the ketogen diet in infants. pediatrics 2001 jun; 108(1):129-33. tonekaboni sh, mostaghimi p, mirmiran p, abbaskhanian a, abdollah gf, ghofrani m, et al. efficacy of atkins diet as therapy for intractable epilepsy in children. arch iran med 2010 nov;13(6):492-7. kossoff eh, dorward jl. the modified atkins diet. epilepsia 2008 nov;49 suppl 8:37-41. mirjavadi sar, tonekaboni sh, ghazavi mr, azarghashb e, abdollah gf, ghofrani m. efficacy of ketogenic diet as a therapy for intractable epilepsy in children. iran j child neurol 2010 sep;4(2):27-36. karimzadeh p, tabarestani s, mahvelati f, tonekaboni sh, ghofrani m. intractable seizure disorfes; efficacy of the classic ketogenic diet. iran j child neurol 2009 jan; 3(1):15-20. barzegar m, ostad rahimi ar, eslampour sh, shabazi sh. the ketogenic diet for refractory epilepsy. med j tabriz uni med sci health serv 2009;31:15-20. lefevre f, aronson n. ketogenic diet for the treatment of refractory epilepsy in children: a systematic review of efficacy. pediatrics 2000 apr;105(4):105-9. keene dl. a systematic review of the use of the ketogenic diet in childhood epilepsy. pediatr neurol 2006 jul;35(1):1-5. porta n, vallee l, boutry e, fontaine m, dessein af, joriot s, et al. comparsion of seizure reduction and serum fatty acid levels after receiving the ketogenic and modified atkins diet. seizure 2009 jun 18(5):359-64.