Comparison between Diazepam and Phenobarbital in Prevention of Febrile Seizure: Clinical Trial

Objective

Febrile convulsions (FC) are the most common convulsive events in childhood, occurring in 2-5% of children. About one third of these children will have a recurrence during a subsequent febrile infection. This sudden neurologic problem is extremely frightening and emotionally traumatic for parents so some physicians try to prevent recurrence of FC by prescribing different drugs.

Materials and Methods

This is a randomized clinical trial in 85 healthy children, aged 6 months to 5 years, who were not treated before. These children received randomly either oral diazepam (0.33 mg/kg/TDS for two days during febrile illness) or continuous oral Phenobarbital (3-5mg/kg /24 h).

Results

Ultimately 64 patients completed the study and were followed up for an average of 13 months (12-18 months). The rate of recurrence of febrile seizure was 18.2% in diazepam group and 32.3% in Phenobarbital group; the difference is not statistically significant (p=0.16).

Conclusion

There was no significant difference between intermittent oral diazepam and continuous oral Phenobarbital for FC prevention.