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Does anyone have positive results from ACTH treatment for infants?

Thu, 12/15/2005 - 21:51
When my son was about 7 months old his eyes started rolling back in his head and his head would jerk to the side for just a split second. He was just starting to crawl at that point and thank the Lord I was able to catch it on video and take it to my pediatritian. He recommended that I see a neurologist and we did. after extensive tests Brevan's EEG was totally abnormal but every other test came back clean (MRI, CAT etc.). His doctor but him on Topamax a low dosage at first and gradually increased it. We finally got it a point where his seizures were reduced to a few a day. Then after a few months they began to change. No longer were his eyes rolling up but his body and arms would jerk to the side or front for a split second sometimes he had a few in a row, especially after just waking up and sometimes just randomly. After those started he also bagan having very short stare spells. They would last just a couple seconds. He would be smiling at you and then all of a sudden he would stop smiling and then start again as if nothing had happened. The neurologist added B6 to his Topamax meds but after a month we haven't seen to much of an improvement. He still has a mixture of a stare seizure and a quick jerk seizure everyday. He has developed normally except for his speech. He is 19months now and does not say any recognizable sounds. He does tend to be quite unstable on his feet and falls forward very easily. His balance is off but we don't know if that is from the meds or the seizures. Anyways the neurologist saw us again last week and said that he will give him another EEG test to see if there is any improvement in his seizure activity. If things aren't improved he wants us to think about giving our son the ACTH treatment and then Vigabatrin. (Our doc is also a proponant of the katogenic diet but our son is a bit yound for that now.) After reading all the stories about ACTH and the reoccurance of other seizures we are wondering if it is worth trying the ACTH? He has not officially been diagnosed with IS. He doesn't tend to have the big clusters of seizures. His seem to be a milder form but happen every day. Does anyone have positive results from the ACTH? Or have other suggestions. We are hesitant to give him the treatment if he might get other complications because of it.

Comments

Re: Re: Re: Does anyone have positive results from ACTH treatmen

Submitted by healingwater on Thu, 2005-12-29 - 20:54
At the time, the only thing doctors recommended was ACTH. They never even, at the time, mentioned B6, vigabtrin, or anything else. He was however started on zonegran while they ran tests. Once he was diagnosed with infantile spasms though ACTH was the recommendation. I must also say that since my last post to you, Luke had another episode with his meds. Although he has remained seizure free, we are now completely off the ACTH. The problem however is that while he was on ACTH he developed a reaction and the only thing that we could use effectively to control his temperament was clonodine. Clonodine is a blood pressure medication that really sedates the little guy. Now that we are off the ACTH, weaning him off the clonodine has proven to be a real challenge. If we give him the recommended oral dose twice a day, he has peaks and valleys. He is either knocked out, or acting like he is withdrawling from a serious drug due to the lower dose. We are down to just .1mg clonodine/day and have found a transdermal patch that low. It seems to help alot as he gets a constant low dose vice his peaks and valleys.

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