Effects of anticonvulsant drug therapy on bone mineral density in a pediatric population.

Twenty epileptic outpatients, aged 5-20 years and taking either phenobarbital or phenytoin for anticonvulsant therapy, were evaluated for femoral neck area bone mineral content and bone mineral density using dual photon absorptiometry. Duration of treatment averaged 51.4 months (range, 9-124 months). A group of 20 normal children who were matched for age, sex, and race served as controls. There were no statistically significant differences between the femoral neck area bone mineral densities of the epileptic patients as compared to the controls. There were also no correlations between duration of anticonvulsant therapy and bone mineral density, nor any differences in bone mineral density values when comparing epileptic patients taking phenobarbital with those patients taking phenytoin.