Epilepsy drug when taken in pregnancy lowers baby's IQ

Sunday April 19 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- Pregnant women need to give it a second thought when they decide to take anti-epilepsy medications during pregnancy, a new study suggests.

The study led by researchers at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta found that children born to mothers who took valproate during pregnancy, a very efficient epilepsy medication, tended to have children with lower IQ scores.

The finding was derived from data from the Neurodevelopmental Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs (NEAD) study involving 309 children across almost 25 epilepsy centers in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The NEAD study is ongoing and aims to assess the IQ levels of the kids when they are 6 years old. The present findings stem from data collected when the children attained 3 years of age.

The common factor for all children was that their mothers were on epilepsy medications like valproate, carbamazapine, lamotrigine and phenytoin during pregnancy.

The researchers report that children whose mothers took valproate during pregnancy had significantly lower IQ scores as compared to their counterparts whose mothers took the other three medications.

The IQ of the children exposed in the womb to various drugs, namely Lamotrigine, Phenytoin, Carbamazapine and Valproate, were 101, 99, 98, and 92 respectively.
 
Furthermore, if the mother took a higher dose of the drug, then the adverse impact on her baby's intelligence was consequently higher.

According to the Epilepsy Foundation, more than 90 percent of women with epilepsy will have normal, healthy infants. However, exposure to epilepsy medications may cause cognitive and behavioral difficulties in children.

This study, which appears in the April 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that pregnant women must try other medications first before taking valproate.

(Written by Kathy Jones and David Liu, and edited by Heather Kelley)