Suppression of post-hypoxic and post-encephalitic myoclonus with levetiracetam

Abstract

Posthypoxic and postencephalitic myoclonus is often poorly controlled with current treatments. The authors successfully treated three patients with posthypoxic and postencephalitic myoclonus by using levetiracetam, a new antiepileptic drug. Levetiracetam appears to be a promising agent for treating action myoclonus caused by hypoxic and encephalitic brain injury-the degree of functional improvement may depend on the severity of associated motor dysfunction.

Lance-adams syndrome: a report of two cases

“…Frucht and Fahn (2000) reviewed more than 100 cases of LAS and found that clonazepam, sodium valproate, and piracetam were significantly effective in approximately 50% of patients. Recently, several groups have confirmed the efficacy of levetiracetam in PHM (Frucht et al, 2001;Krauss et al, 2001;Lim and Ahmed, 2005). Clonazepam, sodium valproate, piracetam, and levetiracetam may be recommended as first-line agents to treat patients with LAS.…”

Levetiracetam Control of Myoclonus in a Patient with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

“…Recent small reports suggest that LEV is also very effective in chronic myoclonus due to post-hypoxic or postinfective encephalopathies and in progressive myoclonic epilepsies (e.g. the Unverricht-Lundborg disease) [2][3][4][5]. Here, we described a patient with sporadic CJD whose subcontinuous myoclonic jerks markedly subsided after LEV introduction.…”

“…It is chemically related to piracetam, a compound that is highly effective in cortical myoclonus [1]. Some open-label data indicate that LEV may be beneficial in cortical myoclonus, too [2][3][4][5]. We describe a patient with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) whose resting and stimulus-sensitive myoclonus greatly ameliorated after LEV introduction.…”

Paraneoplastic Myoclonus with Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

“…Levetiracetam is an anticonvulsant well known to be efficacious in the treatment of different types of myoclonia [9][10] and improved our subject's myoclonus, as did treating her primary malignancy.…”