Anti-Epileptic Drug During Pregnancy Ups Risk of Impaired Brain Development in Children

Anti-epileptic drug, taken by pregnant women, ups the risk of autism and other neurodevelopment difficulties in the offspring, a new study finds.

According to Medscape, nearly 500,000 women with epilepsy are of childbearing age in the United States. Hence, the need for anti-epileptic drug treatment should be reassessed carefully in women with epilepsy who are pregnant. Several studies have linked the usage of anti-epileptic drug during pregnancy to an increased risk of congenital abnormalities in the fetus.

Adding to the downside of the use of anti-epileptic drugs by pregnant women, is the new study led by researchers at the University of Birmingham along with partners in Australia who claim that pregnant women taking anti-epileptic drugs up the risk of impaired development in children. Their finding is based on the evaluation of the children born to mothers who took sodium valproate (VPA) during pregnancy.

Sodium valproate (VPA) is one of the major anti-epileptic drugs that is widely used for the treatment of epilepsy as well as other neuropsychiatric diseases. VPA works by stabilizing the electrical activity in the brain, eventually reducing fits. It is also used to treat bipolar depression and migraines.

The evidence supports the theory that prenatal exposure to VPA has a detrimental effect on the development of the brain, adding to the evidence for elevated risk of congenital malformation and neurodevelopmental difficulties, especially language skills.

This is one of the early studies to directly evaluate the neural effects in the offspring of mothers with epilepsy who were exposed to VPA during pregnancy.

The conclusion was based on the comparison made between high-resolution brain scans of seven-year-old children whose mothers took VPA during pregnancy to that of a control group that included children who were not exposed to the medication.

In children exposed to VPA, an increased cortical thickness was noticed in the left inferior frontal gyrus and left pericalcarine sulcus. The hemispheric asymmetry usually seen in the regions of the brain involved in aspects of language processing was also absent.

It is these regions of the brain that is critical for the development of language skills such as verbal communication.

Dr Amanda Wood, from the University of Birmingham, explained: "This is only a small group, but nonetheless it represents an important first step in understanding how taking VPA during pregnancy might effect a child's brain development. VPA remains an important medication for people with epilepsy. What this study really tells us is that further research is required so that all women with epilepsy can make informed decisions about their medication use during pregnancy."

The study is published in the journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.