Abstracts

Rationale: The aim of this study was to investigate the speech influences of topiramate treatment in newly diagnosed pediatric epileptic patients.Methods: Newly diagnosed 15 epileptic patients (Mean age = 9. 9 ± 2.0 yrs) were assessed through a Computerized Speech Lab (CSL) applied before the beginning of therapy with TPM and 3 months after dosage had been stabilized ( Mean dosage:4.5mg/kg/day). Speech tests had been chosen to assess voice onset time (VOT), total duration (TD), vowel formant, monoloudness, monopitch, speaking rate, and articulation patterns. We compared the data from patients and similar aged healthy volunteers. Results: The rate of laryngeal articulation error patterns in stop consonants was not changed from 10% (14/135) to 9% (13/135) after topiramate treatment. VOT of stop consonants and TD of word were not significantly changed after antiepileptic medication. Energy range in spontaneous speech decreased from 51.0±6.6dB to 49.4±6.6dB after antiepileptic medication. Duration of counting (1 to 10) was seen to increase from 10.3±4.5sec to 8.9±2.2sec after medication. Total pitch of counting increased from 223.6±20 Hz to 227.8±20.4Hz after medication (p>0.5). The first (F1) formant of vowels /a/, /u/, /e/, /o/ decreased after medication. The first formant of vowel /i/ and the second formant of vowel /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/ increased in comparison with before medication. Conclusions: Unlike other papers, our results show that the therapeutic use of topiramate did not induce speech problems.