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Child Taken Depakote, Zarontin For Absence Seizures. How Long Before Effects Are Seen?
My son was diagnosed with Absence seizures on 7/12/13. They are very short 1-3 sec spells. They are typical dx is CAE. He is 8 yrs of age. No head truma, family history , etc. we started with depaokote first week, and got a second opinion pedi Neuro .. He took him off depokote and put him on Zarontin. While we were at the pedi Neuro he could not induce a seizure. So the depokote was working( it had cut them down to about maybe 5 a day) he has been on zarontin 10 days.. We only have seen 2 -3 in the past few days and raised his dose yesterday. My question is how long should it take after the upping of the med to take affect, and how to determine the best time to take the meds.. The 2 we have seen a today have been in the evening after 5 pm which leads me to believe that the morning med is wearing off.. We were giving 250 in morning and at bed time, until yesterday when we upped the dosage.
posted on
Wed, 7 Aug 2013
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Sat, 17 Aug 2013
Answered on
Mon, 19 Aug 2013
Last reviewed on
Hello
Zarontin is the drug of choice for absence seizures. It contains ethosuximide. It has a half life of 32 hrs. So blood level of the drug will be maintained for whole day if it is taken once or twice a day.
Your son is getting the medicine twice a day that is sufficient to maintain the level of drug in the blood to control the seizure.
In case of seizure not completely responding to medication dose can be increased at the interval of 5-7 days.
Serum level of drug should be done to see whether the therapeutic level has reached or not.
As already dose has been increased, I would suggest you to continue the same dose with the same frequency for next 7 days. If still seizures are there then consult your doc for further adjustment of dose and to check the serum levels.
Regards
Zarontin is the drug of choice for absence seizures. It contains ethosuximide. It has a half life of 32 hrs. So blood level of the drug will be maintained for whole day if it is taken once or twice a day.
Your son is getting the medicine twice a day that is sufficient to maintain the level of drug in the blood to control the seizure.
In case of seizure not completely responding to medication dose can be increased at the interval of 5-7 days.
Serum level of drug should be done to see whether the therapeutic level has reached or not.
As already dose has been increased, I would suggest you to continue the same dose with the same frequency for next 7 days. If still seizures are there then consult your doc for further adjustment of dose and to check the serum levels.
Regards
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