Purpose: We studied an eleven year-old girl with atypical, benign partial epilepsy who acutely presented a severe aphasia associated with marked EEG deterioration after lamotrigine administration. A parallel monitoring of language disorders and EEG changes during the gradual withdrawal of lamotrigine was performed in order to evaluate their possible correlation with lamotrigine administration.
Methods: Detailed neuropsychological and linguistic examinations in association with awake and sleep EEG were periodically performed.
Results: The evolution of the aphasic disorder was closely related to the EEG abnormalities, and disappeared after the withdrawal of lamotrigine.
Conclusions: We considered the hypothesis that our case could be an expression of a paradoxical reaction to lamotrigine, in which the transitory aphasic disorder was sustained by an epileptiform electric activation.