Abstract
Potassium bromide (KBr) is the oldest anticonvulsant agent, and its efficacy had already been discovered in the nineteenth century. Today, it is available in only a few countries. When used in humans, KBr is mainly applied in severe childhood epilepsies with generalized tonic-clonic seizures like Dravet syndrome. Positive effects in children with malignant migrating seizures in infancy and PCDH-19 related epilepsy have been observed. KBr predominantly enhances GABA-ergic inhibition and its pharmacology is simple. The bioavailability is almost 100%, and there are no significant interactions except a competition against chloride in the body. The half-life time is age-dependent and varies with the intake of fluids and sodium chloride between 6 and 14 days. Usual daily doses of KBr range between 30 and 60 mg/kg/die. Typical side effects include cutaneous (halide acne, bromoderma tuberosum), gastrointestinal (gastritis, ulcer), and central nervous (sedation, bromism) symptoms.
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Bast, T., Steinhoff, B.J. (2020). Anticonvulsant Agents: Potassium Bromide. In: Riederer, P., Laux, G., Mulsant, B., Le, W., Nagatsu, T. (eds) NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56015-1_304-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56015-1_304-1
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