THE TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY WITH SODIUM DIPHENYL HYDANTOINATE

Abstract

During the first five months of 1938 a study was made of the treatment with sodium diphenyl hydantoinate (dilantin) of epileptic persons in the public schools of Detroit, where the Special School for Epilepsy had been established as an integral part of the public school system. This drug was considered the most powerful anticonvulsant drug that had been tried, and further use has only strengthened this belief. In view of the toxic effects, I felt that it should not be used except under the careful guidance of a physician. Regarding the efficacy of sodium diphenyl hydantoinate in the control of seizures, recent observations correspond very closely with those of the aforementioned study and the study of Putnam and Merritt.¹In twenty-three of the 152 cases under observation the drug has been used for less than three months. Of the remaining 129, the seizures have been entirely controlled in eighty-one,