[Readjustment of anticonvulsive therapy in children. Monitoring of the effects of sodium valproate after barbiturate withdrawal by electrophysiologic sleep studies].

The effectiveness of valproic acid (V.P.A.) in the symptomatic treatment of child's seizures is well established. Its lack of side-effects detrimental to the child's development and, on the contrary, its often positive action on awareness and attention should lead to choose V.P.A. as the first and main therapy. All night sleep recordings have been largely used to study the consequences of drug intake and drug withdrawal. It seemed interesting a) to control the effects of V.P.A. on sleep parameters when it was given as first treatment and b) to compare its effects to those of barbiturates when it was given in substitution. The study of sleep parameters seems to evidence that the often obtained clinical efficiency of V.P.A. parallels the restoration of a physiological functioning of the central nervous system normal or closer to normal.