The use of antiepileptic drugs and their effects in pregnancy

Resumo

Background/Aim: Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases. Epilepsy can affect the entire life, including childbearing age. It is estimated that epileptic women give three to five births per thousand births. Although the use of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during pregnancy has been associated with major congenital malformations in the fetus, many patients cannot discontinue the drugs before pregnancy due to the risk of seizures that may harm the mother as well as the children. In this study, our aim is to examine the follow-up findings of pregnant women who are epileptic and use AEDs during pregnancy and delivery, and to contribute to the literature on this subject, for which the studies are on-going.Materials and methods: 60 epileptic pregnant and 60 healthy pregnant women were included in our study. These women gave birth at Zekai Tahir Burak Women's Healthcare Training and Research Hospital and applied to the Neurology outpatient clinic on 01/04/2018-01/04/2019, and were previously diagnosed with epilepsy by a neurologist, and have started to use AED before pregnancy, and have used AEDs in the first trimester.Results: While the number of pregnancies in the case group (1.75±0.77) was significantly lower than in the control group (2.25±1.17), the rates of caesarean section and neonatal intensive care need were found to be statistically significantly higher in the case group (68.3% and 20.0%, respectively) than in the control group (43.3% and 5.0%, respectively) (p