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Atkins Diet May Help With Intractable Epilepsy: Presented at AES

By Bonnie Darves

BOSTON, MA -- December 15, 2003 -- The high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that's been proved effective in the general population may hold some potential for helping patients with intractable epilepsy achieve seizure control, according to a very small study presented here December 9^th at the American Epilepsy Society 57^th Annual Meeting.

These early findings from researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland hold promise. Although the results are preliminary, the Atkins diet is far less restrictive than the ketogenic diet now widely used for patients who suffer from severe seizures, said Eric H. Kossoff, MD, a researcher with the institution's Children's Center.

"This approach may eventually work with adults who are reluctant to go on the ketogenic diet because it is so restrictive," Dr. Kossoff said; and it may ultimately prove beneficial in children as well. The ketogenic diet is widely used to treat children with hard-to-control seizures, and approximately 50% of children who do not respond to anticonvulsant-drug therapy achieve better seizure control when they switch to the high-fat, calorie-restricted ketogenic diet.

In this study, 5 patients between the ages of 7 and 50 were placed on the Atkins Diet for the treatment of intractable focal and multifocal epilepsy. All patients had previously failed therapy, and all had tried 2 or more antiepileptic drugs.

A particularly intractable patient, a 7-year-old female who had 10 to 30 complex partial seizures and hundreds of absence seizures daily, became seizure-free 3 days after starting the Atkins diet. A 10-year-old boy who had several absence seizures per month, became seizure-free after switching from the ketogenic diet to the Atkins Diet for 4 months. On the other hand, a 42-year-old man with Lennox Gastaut syndrome and daily atonic and myoclonic seizures maintained moderate ketosis for 14 weeks, but experienced no seizure reduction. Four patients were able to maintain moderate to large ketosis for periods ranging from 2 to 24 months.

The 5 patients in the study were initially allowed 10 grams of carbohydrates per day -- a higher amount than the ketogenic diet allows -- and 35% of total calories were from protein. The ketogenic diet calls for no more than 10% of calories from protein.


[Study Title: Efficacy of the Atkins Diet for Intractable Epilepsy. Abstract 2310]

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