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 master seizures may be at a somewhat increased endanger of having an infant with spina bifida, a fresh examine finds. Spina bifida is a ready in which the bones of the barbel do not dense but the spinal string remains in place, usually with skin covering the defect womens ki mood vachi natural vayagra. Most children will extremity lifelong care for problems arising from damage to the spinal twine and spinal nerves.

And "For women with epilepsy, usurpation control during pregnancy is very important," said cause researcher Lolkje de Jong-van den Berg, from the segmenting of druggist's at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. "Our workroom can help in decisions regarding whether carbamazepine should be the stimulant of choice in pregnancy". However, the best option in the matter of treatment can be chosen only on an individual basis by the lassie and her neurologist before pregnancy, weighing the benefits of epilepsy check against the risk of birth defects, de Jong-van den Berg said.

The narrative is published in the Dec 3, 2010 online issue of the BMJ. For the study, de Jong-van den Berg's side reviewed existing scrutiny to arbitrate the risk of family defects among women taking Tegretol. The researchers found that infants of women taking Tegretol were 2,6 times more probably to have spina bifida, compared with women not taking any anti-epileptic medication.

However, the hazard associated with Tegretol was less than with another anti-epileptic drug- valproic acid (Depakene). In fact, Tegretol was less iffy than valproic acid when it came to other parturition defects such as hypospadias, where a boy's urinary beginning develops in the wide of the mark factor of the penis or in the scrotum. "Carbamazepine is specifically joint to an increased jeopardy of spina bifida," de Jong-van den Berg said. "But you have to bottle up in make that the absolute peril is small".

For Tegretol taken in the first trimester, the overall chance of a major malformation was 3,3 percent, the memorize authors reported. The same heap 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 promising to have an infant with spina bifida and seven times more in all probability have an infant with hypospadias, compared with women using other anti-epileptic drugs.

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

Women fundamental to weigh the imperil and help of these drugs. Women with epilepsy penury to stand on an anti-epileptic hallucinogen while they are pregnant. "The risk of spasm to themselves and potentially to their fetus is greater than the risk of anti-epileptic drugs".

There are alternate drugs, specifically lamotrigine (Lamictal) and levetiracetam (Keppra). However, there is mini facts 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 emergency to identify the risks associated with Tegretol check this out. "If a baggage is of childbearing imminent and you are prescribing this drug, that's when the chit-chat needs to occur".