Mom-to-be’s epilepsy drug may affect baby

	Tweet

Children born to mothers with epilepsy who took the anti-seizure medication valproate during pregnancy have an increased risk of developmental delay and cognitive impairment, according to results of a new study.

Dr. N. Adab, of The Walton Center for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Liverpool, UK, and colleagues studied 249 children between the ages of 6 months and 16 years born to mothers with epilepsy. Forty-one children were exposed during their mother’s pregnancy to sodium valproate, 52 to carbamazepine, 21 to phenytoin, 49 to multiple anti-seizure medications, and 80 were unexposed.

The researchers used structured interviews, hospital records, clinical examinations, and psychometric tests to assess the children’s degree of exposure to these drugs and their IQs. Photographs were used to score children with abnormally shaped facial features.

Children in the valproate group had significantly lower average verbal IQ scores compared with children who were not exposed as well as with children in the other single-drug groups, the researchers report in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.

Also, 44 percent of children exposed to valproate had moderately to severely abnormal features, compared with only two percent of unexposed children.

“Our data demand that epilepsy services deliver adequate information and counseling about drug treatment during childbearing years,” Adab’s group concludes. “This needs to be offered before pregnancy and updated regularly.”

SOURCE: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry; November 2004.

RELATED STORIES:
‘Epilepsy’ children wait for answers   Treatments for epilepsy compared   Brain surgery for epilepsy underutilized   Combat injuries may cause epilepsy years later   Brain Surgery Touted for Epilepsy   Epilepsy patients may be prone to bipolar disorder   Heart rhythm disturbance in epilepsy may be fatal   UF Researchers Get $250,000 to study Cell-Based Epilepsy Treatment   Answers to a rare and tragic form of epilepsy   Epilepsy surgery can lead to memory loss   Aging accelerates brain abnormalities in childhood onset epilepsy patients   Dog epilepsy gene discovery could aid people - study

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]