Use Of Medicines For Epilepsy During Pregnancy Can Cause A Risk To The Child

Use Of Medicines For Epilepsy During Pregnancy Can Cause A Risk To The Child.
Pregnant women with epilepsy who are irresistible carbamazepine (Tegretol) to mechanism seizures may be at a measure increased risk of having an infant with spina bifida, a unfledged study finds. Spina bifida is a condition in which the bones of the spine do not close but the spinal rope remains in place, usually with skin covering the defect rxlistbox com. Most children will indigence lifelong treatment for problems arising from damage to the spinal cord and spinal nerves.

And "For women with epilepsy, impounding control during pregnancy is very important," said lead researcher Lolkje de Jong-van den Berg, from the segment of pharmacy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. "Our investigation can help in decisions regarding whether carbamazepine should be the drug of choice in pregnancy" 4rxday.com. However, the best election regarding treatment can be chosen only on an individual basis by the woman and her neurologist before pregnancy, weighing the benefits of epilepsy lever against the risk of birth defects, de Jong-van den Berg said.

The boom is published in the Dec 3, 2010 online edition of the BMJ. For the study, de Jong-van den Berg's span reviewed existing research to determine the peril of birth defects among women taking Tegretol. The researchers found that infants of women enchanting Tegretol were 2,6 times more likely to have spina bifida, compared with women not prepossessing any anti-epileptic medication.

However, the risk associated with Tegretol was less than with another anti-epileptic drug- valproic acid (Depakene). In fact, Tegretol was less dicey than valproic acid when it came to other birth defects such as hypospadias, where a boy's urinary foot in the door develops in the wrong part of the penis or in the scrotum. "Carbamazepine is specifically cognate to an increased risk of spina bifida," de Jong-van den Berg said. "But you have to save in mind that the absolute risk is small".

For Tegretol taken in the first trimester, the overall imperil of a major malformation was 3,3 percent, the study authors reported. The same group of researchers found in another study, published this year in the New England Journal of Medicine, that women fetching valproic acid were six times more reasonable to have an infant with spina bifida and seven times more inclined to have an infant with hypospadias, compared with women using other anti-epileptic drugs.

The researchers agree with a recommendation from the American Academy of Neurology that valproic acid should be avoided in pregnancy if possible. Dr Orrin Devinsky, numero uno of the Epilepsy Center at NYU Langone Medical Center, said that "for women of childbearing age, these drugs reflect a risk".

Women scarcity to balance the risk and benefit of these drugs, he explained. Women with epilepsy essential to stay on an anti-epileptic drug while they are pregnant, Devinsky said. "The jeopardy of seizure to themselves and potentially to their fetus is greater than the risk of anti-epileptic drugs," he added.

There are option drugs, specifically lamotrigine (Lamictal) and levetiracetam (Keppra). However, there is little text on any dangers associated with these drugs during pregnancy, Devinsky noted. Another expert, Dr Kimford Meador, a professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine, said women extremity to be versed the risks associated with Tegretol fav store net. "If a woman is of childbearing potential and you are prescribing this drug, that's when the parley needs to occur," Meador said.