Phenobarbital for Febrile Seizures

To the Editor: We are concerned about the methods used by Farwell et al. in their article “Phenobarbital for Febrile Seizures — Effects on Intelligence and on Seizure Recurrence” in the February 8 issue.¹ The authors conclude that “phenobarbital depresses cognitive performance in children treated for febrile seizures and that this disadvantage, which may outlast the administration of the drug by several months, is not offset by the benefit of seizure prevention.”¹ We do not think that this article can substantiate either of these conclusions. The methods used initially to analyze cognitive performance are clearly different from those used at…