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We have good news for those pregnant women with epilepsy. It seems that two new epilepsy drugs are not associated with lower IQs for their children during middle childhood. According to the researchers, those who were exposed to levetiracetam or topiramate did not have reduced cognition in their childhood, compared with the kids who had no exposure to those drugs.
Researchers used data from 200 children from the UK Epilepsy and Pregnancy Register.Those who were exposed to a lower dose of medication showed no differences compared with the group who was exposed to the other drug. Rebecca Ll. Bromley, the author of the study, said that the treatment with epilepsy drugs needs consideration on maternal and fetal health.
According to the results, if the mother takes to levetiracetam or lower doses of valproate, the child will have no problems. However, more research needs to be done before they will be able to say that these drugs have no side effects.
There were studies that said the prenatal exposure to valproate can lower scores in math or reading skills compared to those who were not exposed. Moreover, valproate can be a danger to the brain health of the child. Do not forget that your child is exposed in utero to all the drugs you take. If this new study is right, people might have a chance to have their children safe even if they take epilepsy drugs.
Epilepsy is a group of neurological diseases, characterized by epileptic seizures. They are episodes that can last for a few minutes to long periods of shaking. Many people were injured when they had one of these episodes because they can’t control their actions. The main cause for this disease is not known by the doctors.However, some people developed it because of a brain injury or a heart-attack.
The disease can be prevented and the seizures can be controlled in most of the cases. For those patients who do not respond to treatment, a surgery can be done. There are people who improve their health and do not need drugs. Unfortunately, there are more than 22 million people who struggle with epilepsy . Millions of people died due to this disease and is most common for children and young adults. We are hoping researchers will find out more about this new epilepsy drugs and that children will not be affected by them.
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