MODERN APPROACHES TO THE TREATMENT OF DRUG-RESISTANT EPILEPSY IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: THE ROLE OF THE KETOGENIC DIET AND CORRECTION OF PROTEIN-ENERGY MALNUTRITION

Abstract

over the last decade, pharmaceutical companies have presented to the world a large number of anticonvulsants differing in efficacy and in their capabilities for controlling patients with epileptic seizures. The fundamental factor in choosing antiepileptic drugs is safety, minimisation of complications, monotherapy and, most importantly, the arrest of seizures. However, despite the better tolerability and the simpler regimen of administration of many anticonvulsants of the latest generation (the third in succession), antiepileptic drugs have not solved all the problems of patients with intractable epilepsy, especially those concerning childhood or adolescence (L.M. Sushko, 2017). In this connection, modern medicine is considering the possibility of introducing alternative methods of therapy, an example of which is the ketogenic diet (KD) (Perucca E. et al., 2023).