Dopa-Responsive Dystonia after used Lamotrigine: Case reports

Epilepsy is a common neurologic disorder affecting approximately 1% of the population. The prevalence of active epilepsy in Kerman,Iran is 7.87/1000 individuals. The past decade has brought many advances to the treatment of epilepsy, including many new pharmacological agents. Lamotrigine is one of the new antiepileptic drugs. Lamotrigine has many side effects; the most important of which are allergic reactions. In this article, the author reports two cases of dopa- responsive dystonia (DRD) after few months administration of lamotrigine for epilepsy. The cases are two girls (4 and 5 years old) who had seizures and received lamotrigine 50 mg/day. They have been free of seizure after treatment but after some time the dystonic attacks developed. Lamotrigine administration discontinued, but dystonic attacks didn’t disappear. Levodopa /carbidopa was started. After a few days, the dystonic pastures disappeared. In conclusion, lamotrigine may introduce dystonia in susceptible patients. These dystonic attacks might beresponsive to levodopa.