1043-3155 Pediatr Neurol Briefs pedneurbriefs Pediatr Neurol Briefs Pediatric Neurology Briefs Pediatr Neurol Briefs 2166-6482 1043-3155 2166-3155 Pediatric Neurology Briefs Publishers Chicago, IL, USA PNB-2-69-b 10.15844/pedneurbriefs-2-9-8 Involuntary Movements Neurology Pediatrics Nervous System Diseases Child Development Brain Diseases Neurosurgery Child Infant Sydenham’s Chorea Therapy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0173-7931 Millichap J. Gordon MD 1 2 * Division of Neurology, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL Correspondence: Dr. J. Gordon Millichap, E-mail: jgmillichap@northwestern.edu 09 1988 01 08 2016 2 9 69 70 Copyright: © 1988 The Author(s) 1988 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Carbamazepine: an alternative drug for the treatment of nonhereditary chorea

Five patients with chorea successfully treated with carbamazepine at plasma levels of 6.5 - 8.8 mcg/ml are reported from the Dept of Pediatrics, Child Neurology and EEG Service, Hospital Infantil Vall d’Hebron, Autonomous University, Barcelona, Spain.

 Carbamazepine Streptococcal Infection Allergic Cutaneous Rash

Five patients with chorea successfully treated with carbamazepine at plasma levels of 6.5 - 8.8 mcg/ml are reported from the Dept of Pediatrics, Child Neurology and EEG Service, Hospital Infantil Vall d’Hebron, Autonomous University, Barcelona, Spain. The cause of the chorea was streptococcal infection in 2, post-head injury (1), and unknown in 2. Therapy was continued for 3 to 36 months; it was discontinued in 1 because of an allergic cutaneous rash. [1]

COMMENT. Prednisone has also been advocated in the treatment of Sydenham’s chorea. Kelts and Harrison, reporting at the recent 17th annual meeting Child Neurology Society in Halifax, found predisone beneficial in 9 cases; an initial average dose of 1.8 mg/kg/day begun within 2 weeks of onset of chorea was tapered over 2 to 6 months.

Despite the self-limiting nature of the involuntary movements, they are frequently incapacitating and warrant treatment. If low to moderate doses of phenobarbital are ineffective, a trial of carbamazepine appears to be worthwhile, and predisone in resistant cases. Paradoxically, choreoathetosis or dystonia may occur as a side-effect of carbamazepine treatment in epileptic patients.

 Roig M Montserrat L Gallart A Carbamazepine: an alternative drug for the treatment of nonhereditary chorea Pediatrics 1988 Sep 82 3 Pt 2 492 5 2970059