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TIME: Almanac 1995
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<text id=90TT0463>
<title>
Feb. 19, 1990: Worse Than The Disease
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
Feb. 19, 1990 Starting Over
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
MEDICINE, Page 74
Worse Than The Disease
</hdr>
<body>
<p>In youngsters, phenobarbital may do more harm than good
</p>
<p> The child's body turns rigid, the eyes roll back, and the
limbs begin to jerk. These are the frightening signs of a
febrile seizure. Triggered by a high fever, often during an
infectious illness such as tonsillitis or flu, this type of
convulsion is caused by violent nerve storms in the brain.
About 130,000 of the 4 million children born each year in the
U.S. will have at least one febrile seizure by the time they
turn seven.
</p>
<p> To prevent additional seizures and satisfy worried parents,
physicians often prescribe phenobarbital. But according to a
report in last week's New England Journal of Medicine, the drug
may do more harm than good. In a study of 217 children from
eight months to three years of age who had had at least one
seizure, researchers at the University of Washington and the
National Institutes of Health found that children who took
phenobarbital daily for up to two years had significantly lower
IQ scores than those who were given a placebo. Some difference
was still apparent several months after they stopped taking the
drug, but it is not known whether the impact will be permanent.
To make matters worse, phenobarbital was not effective in
suppressing seizures.
</p>
<p> Since most febrile seizures are scary but harmless,
researchers say, there is little reason ever to use
phenobarbital as a treatment. About one-third of all the
children who have these convulsions are likely to have
subsequent ones, but only 4% eventually develop epilepsy.
</p>
<p> Phenobarbital was once widely prescribed as a sleeping pill,
and is still used by epileptics of all ages, but its impact on
the intelligence of adults is not known. Despite the new
evidence against phenobarbital, people taking the drug should
not stop without consulting a doctor. As with any
anticonvulsant, going cold turkey may trigger severe seizures.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>