This meta-analysis is reassuring regarding risk for malformations in children exposed prenatally to oxcarbazepine; however, we still need more data to fully assess reproductive safety.
Given limited data on the reproductive safety of oxcarbazepine, we would recommend using alternate medications during pregnancy, when possible.
For women with bipolar disorder, choosing whether to maintain or discontinue treatment with a mood stabilizer during pregnancy is challenging. This is a process which requires careful and thoughtful consideration, weighing the risk of adverse [...]
We don’t hear this clinical question so often but it does come up from time to time. While the anticonvulsant oxcarbazepine (Trileptal) was initially promoted as a mood stabilizer for patients with bipolar disorder, it [...]
EURAP is an international registry for antiepileptic drugs and pregnancy. At its inception in 1999, it included only European countries but EURAP has grown and now includes 42 countries from Europe, Australia, Asia, South America. [...]
There have long been concerns regarding the use of the anticonvulsant valproate (Depakote) during pregnancy. First trimester use of valproate has been associated with a 3-5% risk of neural tube defects, as well as [...]
Last week in clinical rounds we discussed a case of a woman with bipolar disorder who was planning a pregnancy. She had a long history of illness, experiencing primarily depressive episodes since her early [...]
This is a paper I missed from 2014, but I think this study adds some important information to the review we posted on topiramate a few weeks ago.
While it is well-established that several of the older anticonvulsants, including valproate (Depakote), carry a significant teratogenic risk, less is known about the reproductive safety of the newer antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). The North American AED Pregnancy Registry was established in 1997 for pregnant women in the United States and Canada at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The purpose of the registry is to obtain and publish information on the frequency of major malformations among infants whose mothers have taken one or more AEDs during pregnancy.
