Epilepsy Drugs in Pregnancy May Affect Infants

Young children exposed to epilepsy drugs in the womb are at increased risk of having impaired to your liking motor skills, according to a added examination. Exposure to the drugs in breast milk, however, does not appear to appendix a threat.

Researchers looked at data collected from Norwegian mothers roughly their children's language, behavior, and motor and social skills at the ages of 6 months, 18 months and 36 months. The women moreover provided mention coarsely speaking the order of breast-feeding during the first year for the psychiatry, which was published online Sept. 23 in the journal JAMA Neurology.


Of the children in the investigation, 223 were exposed to one or more epilepsy drugs in the womb.

At age 6 months, 11.5 percent of infants whose mothers took epilepsy drugs during pregnancy had impaired fine motor skills (which move little muscle movements) compared considering less than 5 percent of those who were not exposed to epilepsy drugs.

Using on severity of one type of epilepsy drug during pregnancy was associated considering impairments in both fine motor and social skills.

Exposure to epilepsy drugs in breast milk was not associated behind any harmful effects for the age groups included, according to a journal news forgive.

Although the psychiatry found that aeration to epilepsy drugs in the womb was related as soon as a risk for impaired motor skills in infants, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

"Women considering epilepsy should be encouraged to breast-feed their children irrespective of antiepileptic medication use," said Dr. Gyri Veiby, of the University of Bergen in Norway, and colleagues.

Veiby has conventional travel maintain from drugmaker UCB Pharma and lecture fees from GlaxoSmithKline, the chemical analysis disclosed.

The findings come happening behind the money for auxiliary evidence that it is fasten to breast-feed even though taking epilepsy drugs, Dr. Paul Van Ness, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, wrote in an accompanying journal editorial.

"Pregnant women following epilepsy often ask whether they will be nimble to breast-feed," he said. "Many have been saintly conflicting advice surrounded by there were scant data to confession the ask."

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