ANTI-EPILEPTIC DRUGS USED DURING PREGNANCY

Abstract

Anti-epileptic drugs(AED’s) prescribing to the pregnant women is one of the challenging tasks to the prescribers. It may be vulnerable to the mother as well as fetus  if the AED’s regimen is not addressed properly during pregnancy. It could even lead to the death of the mother and fetus or injury to the fetus(resulting neural tube defects,congenital malformations). Discontinuing an AED’s should be done only consulting physician or the  clinician or else women with epilepsy during pregnant time should not avoid anti-epileptic drugs. During pregnancy, the metabolism of AED’s may vary due to various aspects. So,the  clinician must give focus to addressing the changes seen in women. Monitoring drugs levels during pregnancy is also an another important tasks for the clinician. The risk of the fetus should eliminate from the particular drugs as well as from seizure disorder itself. Many anti-epileptic drugs show teratogenic effects, some risks includes poor neonatal outcome, neural tube defects, congenital malformation and various cognitive effects on the child. These risks are also mentioned in this article along with individual AED’s. Similarly, some anti-epileptic drugs like lamotrigine, levetiracetam, phenytoin are safe during pregnancy but along with folic acid supplements to minimize the risks.

Keywords: Anti-epileptic drugs, congenital malformation, epilepsy, folic acid