Prescribing change, expecting more
The use of certain antidepressants during pregnancy may be linked to speech and language disorders in children, US researchers have found. According to the latest study, women who purchase two or more prescriptions for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy may be more likely to have children with speech and language disorders. Dr Alan Brown of the Columbia University…
Read more > Speech and language disorder linked to antidepressant use during pregnancy
Newer epilepsy medications may not have a negative impact on a baby’s cognitive development if taken during pregnancy, new research has determined. Risks associated with an older medication, valproate, were also confirmed during the latest study, however, the results of which were published online this month in the respected journal Neurology. The Epilepsy Research UK-funded study has shown that…
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is more prevalent in women of childbearing age than in any other group. As a result, a key concern of many newly diagnosed women is how the disease will affect their chances of having children. This was the case for Anna Field, who was diagnosed with MS at the age of 26. Since her diagnosis, Anna has…
Roxanne Davenport from Lewisville, North Carolina, US, began having complex petit mal seizures when she was 21. She now copes with mesial temporal sclerosis, has two daughters and works as an epilepsy advocate as well as moderating the Google+ Epilepsy Support Community. Here, Roxanne shares the challenges she faced during pregnancy. During my first pregnancy, I was only on one…
Read more > Two successful pregnancies for epilepsy advocate
Keeping the risk of seizures down is primarily why women with epilepsy take anti-epileptic drugs. When pregnancy is put into the equation, they’re often unsure what to do with their regular medication. Should there be a trade off between the benefits of not having seizures and the fear of what impact these drugs might have on their unborn child? If…
Read more > Anti-epileptic drugs & baby’s development: should a mom have to choose?
Epilepsy and pregnancy. Not an impossible combination, but certainly a difficult one. It’s also rare – according to research from 1999 only 0.5% of all pregnancies occur in epileptic women – but it is this very scarcity of cases that causes epilepsy in pregnant women to be under-researched. As it stands, the advice for mothers-to-be suffering from epilepsy is mixed.…
