The use of anti-seizure drug valproate while pregnant may cause your baby harm, US researchers said Thursday. Previous studies have shown that using the drug during pregnancy increases the risk of development delays and major malfunctions. The current study, however, clearly underlines the idea that valproate taken during pregnancy leads to impaired cognitive function in kids.
The study is published in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. It was done by researchers at Emory University in Atlanta led by Kimford J. Meador, MD. They investigated pregnant women suffering from epilepsy at 25 centers in the US and England.
Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which clusters of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain sometimes signal abnormally. In epilepsy, the normal pattern of neuronal activity becomes disturbed, causing strange sensations, emotions, and behavior or sometimes convulsions, muscle spasms, and loss of consciousness.
Once epilepsy is diagnosed, it is important to begin treatment as soon as possible. For about 80 percent of those diagnosed with epilepsy, seizures can be controlled with modern medicines and surgical techniques.
Modern medicines include valpraote, lamotrigine, phenytoin or carbamazepine. Researchers at Emory University wanted to see what side effects these drugs have in babies born to women with epilepsy taking them.
Therefore, they analyzed 309 kids at age 3 whose mothers had taken one of the above-mentioned drugs during pregnancy. The study found that children born to mothers who took valproate had the lowest average IQ even after adjusting for other factors that might influence IQ, such as mothers’ IQ, her age at delivery, or the type of epilepsy.
More exactly, the researchers found the following average IQs: 101 for children whose mothers took lamotrigine, 99 for children whose mothers took phenytoin, 98 for children whose mothers took carbamazepine and 92 for children whose mothers took valproate.
“Valproate exposure to the unborn child is associated with a lower IQ, which is not explained by any of the other factors [influencing IQ], such as mother’s IQ, mother’s age, or epilepsy type,” Meador said.
In a commentary appearing with the study, Torbjorn Tomson of Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said the finding is of much importance keeping in mind the number of women suffering from epilepsy and the side effects their babies could suffer because of the medication they are prescribed. There are about 25,000 children in the US born to mothers with the disease each year.
Moreover, he underlined the fact that “most major congenital malformations can be detected with the use of prenatal screening, and many can be successfully treated surgically after birth, but cognitive impairment cannot.”
