Hair copper and zinc concentrations in handicapped children treated with anticonvulsants.

Hair copper and zinc contents were measured in 95 handicapped children aged from 4 to 17 years and 48 age- and sex-matched control children. The patients consisted of 5 groups: children untreated with anticonvulsants (n = 7), those treated with phenytoin and phenobarbital (n = 32), those treated with phenytoin, phenobarbital and diazepam (n = 18), those treated with diazepam alone (n = 16) and those treated with phenobarbital alone (n = 12). The patients were all institutionalized in the same medical care unit and received the same diet, containing decreased amounts of copper (75% of control) and sufficient amounts of zinc. The patients belonging to all of the 5 groups had less amounts of hair copper (p less than 0.05) and erythrocyte hemoglobin (p less than 0.01) in comparison to controls. The patients receiving diazepam alone or in addition to other anticonvulsants had significantly less hair zinc content (p less than 0.05) in comparison to controls or other patient groups. Thus, diazepam seemed to have an adverse effect, producing zinc deficiency.