Diet may stop infant epileptic spasms

BALTIMORE, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have determined a ketogenic -- or high fat, low carbohydrate -- diet is effective in treating infantile epileptic spasms.

Infantile spasms are a potentially devastating epileptic condition affecting children aged 4-8 months.

Johns Hopkins University researchers said their finding is the first description of the ketogenic diet as a first-line defense for infantile spasms in place of drugs. The diet is more traditionally used for intractable childhood epilepsy, scientists said.

ACTH and vigabatrin, medications commonly used as first treatments, can have potentially serious side effects, the scientists said. In addition, although ACTH is effective in up to 70 percent of cases, it costs more than $80,000 for a one-month supply and vigabatrin isn't yet available in the United States.

"We decided to review our experience at Johns Hopkins using the ketogenic diet to treat infantile spasms before medications were tried and compare this to our use of ACTH over the same time period," said Dr. Eric Kossoff, the study's lead author.

He said the ketogenic diet is now one of the first-line therapies for new-onset infantile spasms at Johns Hopkins, with other hospitals beginning to follow suit.

The study appears in the journal Epilepsia.