Vitamin D in patients on anticonvulsants.

powerful antibiotic is sufficient without drainage of an abscess."I would like to question this statement.I have personally cleared out more than one sterile cavity persisting several months after the apparent cure of osteomyelitis with antibiotics alone.-I am, etc., R. MERRYWEATHER Gloucester Vitamin D in Patients on Anticonvulsants SIR,-Dr.Claus Christiansen and others (23 September, p. 738) showed an increase in bone density during treatment with vitamin D in 10 epileptic patients on anticonvulsants.We have previously shown significantly lower values of bone density in a group of nine epileptic women compared with a con- trol group of 10 psychiatric patients resident in the same epileptic colony.'After our initial investigation in June 1971 we reinvestigated our groups of patients in Febru- ary 1972 to find out if there was a seasonal variation in bone density values, but they were unaltered.During the next six months both groups were given calciferol 50,000 IU/day by mouth.Bone density was assessed by gamma-ray osteodensitometry after three and six months of vitamin D treatment.During vitamin D treatment no significant alteration in bone density could be demonstrated, but bone density mean values measured both on the heel and elbow remained significantly lower in the group of epileptic patients.None of the patients showed signs of vitamin D overdosage.The discrepancy between our results and those of Dr. Christiansen and his colleagues mittht be explained by differences in the epileptics studied with respect to sex, age, duration of anticonvulsant therapy, vitamin D dosage, and calcium intake.We are making further studies of bone density in epileptic patients on anticonvulsants during treatment with vitamin D and calcium.-We