Introduction: Epilepsy is widely regarded as the most common neurologic disorder in childhood. Two main groups of antiepileptic drugs are hepatic enzyme inducers that induce the hepatic P450 system and non-inducers. Nevertheless, non-enzyme-inducing AEDs can also be correlated with hypovitaminosis D; the mechanism for this needs to be investigated. Vitamin D deficiency, and thus impaired bone health, is known to be associated with hepatic CYP450 enzyme-inducing antiepileptic drug therapy and polytherapy, especially when used for extended periods.
Aim of the study: Evaluation of vitamin D in the serum of epileptic children on an anticonvulsant.
Subjects and Methods: Cross-sectional case-control research was performed on 90 children. It involved 45 cases of epilepsy on AEDs and 45 healthy control subjects. They were subjected to a full medical history, general and neurological examination, electroencephalography, vitamin D level, serum calcium, and phosphorus level.
Results: Twenty-four patients, representing about 53.3% of all our cases, who were on antiepileptic drugs for more than six months had vitamin D deficiency, compared to one healthy child, representing about 2.2% who had vitamin D deficiency. We found that serum vitamin D levels were higher in patients who took AEDs for >1 year than those who were treated for a duration of 6 months to 1 year (57.1% vs. 40.0%).
Conclusions: Our data support that antiepileptic drugs that are used by children with epilepsy lead to a decrease in serum vitamin D, which is important for the homeostasis of calcium, phosphate, and magnesium. Its importance is essential to bone metabolism. Deficiency was more common in patients who took polytherapy for a long time.