Newer epilepsy medications used during pregnancy do not affect neurological development in children
Children of mothers who took certain antiseizure medications while pregnant do not have worse neurodevelopmental outcomes at age 6, according to a long-running study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study was published in JAMA Neurology.
In the study, researchers assessed language abilities in 387 children at age 6 (298 were born to women with epilepsy who took antiseizure medications). Children were tested on a variety of verbal abilities, including vocabulary and matching spoken words to pictures. There were no differences in language scores between children of women who took the medications and those who didn’t. Most women were taking lamotrigine, levetiracetam, or a combination of both drugs during and after pregnancy.
The study also found that folate use during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy was associated with better cognitive and behavioral outcomes, even at higher doses. Folate is an essential nutrient that can help prevent birth defects in the brain and spine of a developing fetus. This held true for children of women with and without epilepsy. High doses at or above 4 mg per day did not have adverse effects, which contrasts with prior studies that found long-term risks associated with high doses of folic acid.
This report is part of the Maternal Outcomes and Neurodevelopmental Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs (MONEAD) study, a prospective, long-term study that looked at how antiseizure medications affect pregnant women with epilepsy and their children from birth up to 6 years of age.
Additional analyses revealed no adverse effects of antiseizure medications on breastfeeding. Researchers point out that more studies need to be done to understand the risks of high doses of folate and less common antiseizure medications, including newer drugs on the market.
