Epilepsy Drugs linked to Higher Risk of Birth dDefects

According to recent research, women having anti-epileptic drugs during their pregnancies have a 19 times greater risk of having of having a baby with spina bifida compared with those women who did not take an epilepsy drug. Medicines like valproic acid also increased the risk of seven other birth defects, including cleft palate and four types of heart defects.

The researchers found that taking higher doses of any of the four drugs as carbamazepine, lamotrigine, valproic acid or phenobarbital during the time of conception has been associated with an increased risk of major congenital  malformation in the foetus compared to taking a lower dose.

Women prescribed with topiramate had a seven times greater risk of having a baby with cleft lip (with or without cleft palate),as per the recent study. Among the 517 women prescribed topiramate, three babies had cleft lip, compared with 1,637 babies born to women not taking an epilepsy drugs. The doctors prescribe a medicine that poses no risk to a developing fetus and, if possible, only one seizure medicine at a time other than that if someone is on more than one seizure medicine, the risk of birth defects increases gradually.

But according to neurology researchers concluded that the risk of these major malformation is not only influenced by type of antiepileptic drug, but also by dose and other variables. They said that their findings should be taken into account when deciding how to treat epilepsy in women of childbearing age.