The effectiveness of antipyretics in preventing febrile seizures

Abstract

Objectives: Febrile seizures are the most common form of seizures in children and they recur frequently. They are very frightening to witness and may cause undue stress to parents and carers. In daily practice, antipyretics are administered regularly to children with a history of febrile seizures with the aim of preventing pyrexia consequently preventing a febrile seizure. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine whether administering antipyretics during febrile illness prevents recurrence of febrile seizures. Research Question: In children with a history of febrile seizures, does the administration of antipyretics reduce the incidence of febrile seizures? Method: A computerised literature search was carried out utilising various databases found at the University of Malta's e-library and a manual search of the reference lists of the articles retrieved in this literature search was done. The search included children under the age of five years who had febrile seizures. All studies that used antipyretics were included; no restriction on dates of publications was done whilst studies using other drug treatment such as anticonvulsants were excluded. Studies that included epilepsy or central nervous system infections were also excluded. In this literature search one SR, four RCTs and one non-RCT were retrieved. The CASP tool was used to appraise the quality of the studies. Conclusion: In children with a history of febrile seizures, antipyretics should be used as in other children with febrile illness. When dealing with children after a febrile seizure, the priority is to reduce parental anxiety by providing information about the benign nature of febrile seizures and explaining what to do during a seizure. Education for all health professionals to improve knowledge regarding febrile seizures, a clinical protocol on the management of febrile seizures, educational sessions and an information leaflet for parents are recommended.