Some Antiepileptic Drugs During Pregnancy Can Have A Negative Impact On The Development Of The CNS Of The Teens

Some Antiepileptic Drugs During Pregnancy Can Have A Negative Impact On The Development Of The CNS Of The Teens.
Teens born to women who took two or more epilepsy drugs while fruitful fared worse in followers than peers with no prenatal jeopardy to those medications, a monumental Swedish bone up has found. Also, teens born to epileptic mothers in normal tended to condition abase in several subjects, including math and English rxlist. The findings guy wire earlier research that linked prenatal direction to epilepsy drugs, particularly valproic acid (brand names embrace Depakene and Depakote), to negative effects on a child's capacity to process information, solve problems and make decisions.

And "Our results suggest that peril to several anti-epileptic drugs in utero may have a annulling effect on a child's neurodevelopment," said study author Dr Lisa Forsberg of Karolinska University Hospital. The workroom was published online Nov 4, 2010 in Epilepsia.

The weigh was retrospective, drift that it looked backwards in time. Using resident medical records and a study conducted by a provincial hospital, Forsberg and her team identified women with epilepsy who gave origin between 1973 and 1986, as well as those who used anti-epileptic drugs during pregnancy. The party then obtained records of children's school interpretation from a registry that provides grades for all students leaving school at 16, the epoch that mandatory education ends in Sweden.

The researchers identified 1,235 children born to epileptic mothers. Of those, 641 children were exposed to one anti-epileptic remedy and 429 to two or more; 165 children had no known vulnerability to the medications. The researchers then compared those children's private school conduct to that of all other children born in Sweden (more than 1,3 million) during that 13-year period.

The teens exposed to more than one anti-epileptic narcotize in the womb were less probably to get a definitive grade than those in the general population, said Forsberg. Not receiving a sure grade generally means not attending vague school because of mental deficits, she explained.

While teens exposed to only one anti-seizure medication did not show the same risk, they were less probable to pass with excellence. This may be the fruit of the influence of the anti-epileptic drug during fetal life, but it may also be the aftermath of factors related to epilepsy, such as genetic factors, social factors and the intention of the mother's seizures, said Forsberg. "Therefore, these statistics should be interpreted with caution".

Anti-epileptic medications besides valproic acid contain phenytoin (such as Dilantin and Phenytek) and carbamazepine (such as Tegretol and Carbatrol). The look noted that compared to other anti-epileptic drugs, valproic acid during pregnancy seems to have a stronger gainsaying modify on cognitive skills. However, Forsberg said that this reflect on could not draw specific conclusions about valproic acid, since very few of the children well-thought-out were exposed to it.

There's also evidence that taking multiple anti-epileptic drugs can cause more wrong than taking just one. That's why the American Academy of Neurology recommends compelling just one during pregnancy, if possible, and distressing medications other than valproic acid.

Dr Jacqueline A French, professor of neurology at NYU Langone Medical Center and big cheese of the Clinical Trials Consortium at the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, said that the retrospective scenery of the retreat made it thorny to control for unknowns that could have affected its findings. For example, the investigation could not factor in how often the mothers had seizures during their pregnancies or during critical untimely years of the child's life.

So "I think that could have an impact on the child's development," said French. "We can't g rid of the plausibility that a woman on anti-epileptic drugs whose seizures are well controlled has just as much good chance of having a child that excels as a woman who is not on the drugs".

Forsberg agreed, noting that most children exposed to anti-epileptic drugs do superb school, and that most children of epileptic mothers are born and stay put healthy. However, the deliberate over findings support current recommendations that pregnant women induce just one anti-epileptic drug if possible, noted Forsberg. She also recommended that women with epilepsy map out their pregnancies weight. "That way, they and their doctors can come up with human treatment plans that make the pregnancy justified for both mother and child," she said.