Weight-loss drug may reduce seizures in kids with severe form of epilepsy – By Brian P. Dunleavy (UPI) / Dec 17 2019
Fenfluramine, once part of the product marketed as Fen-Phen, given at low doses appears safe and effective for Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy, in a clinical trial.
Dec. 17 (UPI) — Children with Dravet syndrome, a severe form of treatment-resistant epilepsy, may have a new treatment option to prevent recurrent convulsive seizures.
Based on the results of a Phase III clinical trial published Tuesday in The Lancet, an older product called fenfluramine may be effective in managing the symptoms associated with Dravet, which has historically proved unresponsive to many currently available treatments.
Fenfluramine is perhaps best known as having once made up the “Fen” part of the weight-loss drug Fen-Phen, with phentermine. Fen-phen was voluntarily withdrawn from the market by its manufacturer in 1997 after high rates of heart problems emerged among people given high doses of up to 220 mg per day.
“The frequent seizures suffered in Dravet syndrome impact on the lives of patients and their families,” study co-author J. Helen Cross, a researcher at Institute of Child Health in Britain, said in a press release, noting that patients in the study had “an average of approximately 40 seizures per month.”
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