Seizure Risk During Pregnancy Varies with Kinds of Epilepsy

Seizure risk in pregnancy highest with frontal lobe epilepsy, researchers have found.

Seizures during pregnancy can increase the risk of distress, neurodevelopmental delays for the child, or even miscarriage.

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At the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society, researchers reported that women with frontal lobe epilepsy are much more likely to have an increase in seizures during pregnancy than those with focal epilepsy or generalised epilepsy.

As reported in the Medical Express, in frontal lobe epilepsy, seizures begin in the front of the brain, while in focal epilepsy, seizures begin in one area of the brain. A third type is generalized epilepsy, wherein seizures affect both sides of the brain.

According to lead author Dr Paula Voinescu, a neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston,

Physicians need to monitor women with focal epilepsy, especially frontal lobe epilepsy, more closely during pregnancy because maintaining seizure control is particularly challenging for them.

In a news release from the American Epilepsy Society, Voinescu added that it is known that seizures during pregnancy can increase the risk of distress and neurodevelopmental delays for the child, along with miscarriage.

Medical Express reported that the scientists analyzed 114 pregnancies among 99 women with epilepsy and found that seizures increased during pregnancy among 53 percent of those with frontal lobe epilepsy, 22.6 percent of those with focal epilepsy and 5.5 percent of those with generalised epilepsy.

Compared to the time before pregnancy, seizures were more numerous nine months after giving birth among 20 percent of those with frontal lobe epilepsy, 7 percent of those with focal epilepsy, and 12 percent of those with generalized epilepsy.

Additionally, it was found that increase in seizures was associated with taking more than one epilepsy drug and in women with frontal lope epilepsy, the seizure risk was likely to begin in the second trimester.

(With media inputs)