Journal article

The teratogenicity of the newer antiepileptic drugs - An update

FJE Vajda, TJ O'Brien, CM Lander, J Graham, MJ Eadie

Acta Neurologica Scandinavica | Published : 2014

Abstract

Objective: To assess the risk of teratogenicity from maternal intake of the more widely used newer antiepileptic drugs, especially lamotrigine, levetiracetam and topiramate. Materials and methods: Use of confidence interval and regression methods to compare risks of foetal malformation in pregnancies in women exposed (n = 1572) and in women with epilepsy not exposed (n = 153) to antiepileptic drugs in the first trimester. Results: Compared with the foetal malformation rate in women with epilepsy who were untreated in the first trimester (3.3%), the malformation rates for lamotrigine (4.6%), levetiracetam (2.4%) and topiramate (2.4%), all in monotherapy, were not statistically significantly d..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the help of our medical and non-medical colleagues, both in referring patients and in increasing patient awareness of the Register. We thank the Scientific Advisory Board and the Ethical Research Committees of St. Vincent's Hospital, Monash Medical Centre, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and other institutions for their ethics over-sight of the Australian Pregnancy Register. The Register is grateful for support from the Epilepsy Society of Australia, the Victorian Epilepsy Foundation, the Royal Melbourne Hospital Neuroscience Foundation, Epilepsy Australia and also for financial support from a NHMRC Linkage Grant and a number of pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi-Aventis, UCB Pharma, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis and Sci-Gen.