Abstract
To determine whether being pregnant in its own right alters epileptic seizure control. Study of 148 pregnancies in women who took no antiepileptic drugs before pregnancy and in at least the earlier half of pregnancy, 69 taking none throughout pregnancy. More women (P < 0.01) had seizures of any type during pregnancy (45.9%) than in the prepregnancy year (34.5%), and also convulsive seizures (30.4% vs 12.3%). After excluding potential confounding factors, viz. late prepregnancy drug withdrawal, treatment resumption in pregnancy possibly preventing seizure recurrence, the figures became seizures of any type 56.6% during and 35.5% before pregnancy and convulsive seizures 39.4% during and 18.2% before pregnancy (both P < 0.01). There was a non-statistically significant greater tendency for seizure control to be lost during pregnancy in genetic generalized than in focal epilepsies (54.2% vs 35.5%). Irrespective of its effects on antiepileptic drug disposition, being pregnant per se seems to impair epileptic seizure control.
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