Do Antiseizure Drugs Pose Risks to Neurological Development?

“A blanket saying that all neurological disorder are bad is overly simplistic and doesn’t make sense biologically,” said senior author Page Pennell, M.D., professor and chair of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh. “Being able to say that no, taking these medications will not put their future child at a greater risk of autism or learning disabilities, has a huge impact for women with epilepsy who are considering pregnancy.”

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder of abnormal electrical activity in the brain that affects over one million American women of childbearing age. With its sudden and debilitating seizures and limited number of medications, which caused significant risks to the developing fetus, the condition was considered incompatible with pregnancy for much of the 20th century, though that landscape is gradually changing.

The Maternal Outcomes and Neurodevelopmental Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs (MONEAD) study was launched two decades ago with the goal of delivering high-quality information about how antiseizure medications affect both the mother and the child. The prospective observational study recruited women who were treated for epilepsy at twenty medical centers across the United States and followed them and their babies over the course of pregnancy and several years postpartum.

Previous research that has come out from the study highlighted the need to carefully monitor and adjust the dosage of antiseizure medications to achieve adequate control of seizures without compromising the health of the fetus. The new study focused on determining whether exposure to these drugs causes long-term neurodevelopmental effects that negatively affect the child.

To assess the effects of fetal exposure to medications, children at the age of three years old were tested for their vocabulary and verbal comprehension skills as well as ability to describe simple pictures. Children of women with epilepsy were as good at verbally describing simple objects and pictures as children of women without epilepsy. Their ability to understand language was also comparable to children of the same age who were born to women without epilepsy, highlighting that both lamotrigine and levetiracetam pose low risks for negatively affecting cognitive outcomes.

Researchers point out, however, that additional research is needed to determine if the same holds true for other antiseizure medications that are less common.

Screening for mood and anxiety disorders is another important factor that clinicians must consider. As part of the study researchers observed that increased maternal anxiety and, to a lower degree, depression has negative effect on newborns.

“For many years, prescribers did not have good information on cognitive outcomes of children exposed in utero to more recently approved antiseizure medicines,” said Adam Hartman, M.D., program director in the NINDS Division of Clinical Research and NINDS project scientist for MONEAD. “This study represents another important step in advancing our knowledge; however, there is more confirmatory work to be done, particularly for the secondary outcomes.”

Reference :

1. Cognitive outcomes at age 3 years in children with fetal exposure to antiseizure medications (MONEAD study) in the USA – (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(23)00199-0/fulltext)

Source: Eurekalert