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 taking carbamazepine (Tegretol) to guide seizures may be at a measure increased jeopardy of having an infant with spina bifida, a altered writing-room finds. Spina bifida is a acclimate in which the bones of the spiculum do not inseparable but the spinal rope remains in place, usually with skin covering the defect going here. Most children will requisite lifelong care for problems arising from damage to the spinal string and spinal nerves.

And "For women with epilepsy, sequestration control during pregnancy is very important," said assume command researcher Lolkje de Jong-van den Berg, from the compartmentation of Rather formal at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. "Our reading can help in decisions regarding whether carbamazepine should be the numb of choice in pregnancy" herbalms com. However, the best option on treatment can be chosen only on an individual basis by the bride and her neurologist before pregnancy, weighing the benefits of epilepsy handle against the risk of birth defects, de Jong-van den Berg said.

The boom is published in the Dec 3, 2010 online copy of the BMJ. For the study, de Jong-van den Berg's gang reviewed existing into or to settle on the risk of creation defects among women taking Tegretol vigrx plus contains. The researchers found that infants of women taking Tegretol were 2,6 times more promising to have spina bifida, compared with women not taking any anti-epileptic medication.

However, the gamble associated with Tegretol was less than with another anti-epileptic drug- valproic acid (Depakene). In fact, Tegretol was less dodgy than valproic acid when it came to other childbirth defects such as hypospadias, where a boy's urinary debut develops in the corrupt divide of the penis or in the scrotum. "Carbamazepine is specifically connected to an increased jeopardize of spina bifida," de Jong-van den Berg said. "But you have to feed in disapprove of that the absolute danger is small".

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

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

Women sine qua non to residue the peril and further of these drugs. Women with epilepsy exigency to linger on an anti-epileptic stimulant while they are pregnant. "The risk of capture to themselves and potentially to their fetus is greater than the risk of anti-epileptic drugs".

There are selection drugs, specifically lamotrigine (Lamictal) and levetiracetam (Keppra). However, there is inconsequential information on any dangers associated with these drugs during pregnancy. Another expert, Dr Kimford Meador, a professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine, said women necessary to separate the risks associated with Tegretol cheapest. "If a lass is of childbearing passive and you are prescribing this drug, that's when the colloquy needs to occur".