Treatment
The most important approach is to reassure the family, because witnessing a breath-holding spell is a frightening experience for observers. There is no definitive treatment available or needed for breath holding spells, as the child will eventually outgrow them.
Some trials have demonstrated the efficacy of iron therapy, especially because although BHS can readily occur without anemia, BHS has been found to be exaggerated by the presence of anemia. Other studies have supported the use of piracetam; a 1998 study indicating that over two months piracetam reduced BHS incidence by sixty percent, twice as much as a placebo. All of these studies agree with the established medical view that a pharmacological agent is not necessary, although it may be desirable for the comfort of the parent and child.
Two articles on breath-holding spells strongly suggest that parents consider having their child be tested by electrocardiogram for the rare, but real possibility that the BHS episodes are actually a symptom of prolonged QT-syndrome, a serious but treatable form of cardiac arrythmia.
Read more about this topic: Breath-holding Spells
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“Our treatment of both older people and children reflects the value we place on independence and autonomy. We do our best to make our children independent from birth. We leave them all alone in rooms with the lights out and tell them, “Go to sleep by yourselves.” And the old people we respect most are the ones who will fight for their independence, who would sooner starve to death than ask for help.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
“I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.”
—Hippocrates (c. 460–c. 370 B.C.)
“To me, nothing can be more important than giving children books, It’s better to be giving books to children than drug treatment to them when they’re 15 years old. Did it ever occur to anyone that if you put nice libraries in public schools you wouldn’t have to put them in prisons?”
—Fran Lebowitz (20th century)