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A register study of maternal epilepsy and delivery outcome with special reference to drug use
Author(s) -
Källén B.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0404.1986.tb03271.x
Subject(s) - register (sociolinguistics) , epilepsy , medicine , drug , psychiatry , philosophy , linguistics
A study has been made on epilepsy and delivery using the Swedish Medical Birth Register, 1973–1981. A total of 635 women with 712 infants were identified with the diagnosis of epilepsy in the register — they represented 1/3 to 1/4 of the expected number. An analysis of the delivery outcome did not indicate a registration bias favouring poor delivery outcome. Hospital records were retrieved for 644 patients (again there is no indication for a selection bias favouring poor delivery outcome) and disease and drugs used were studied. Fifty‐one women did not have epilepsy in early pregnancy but had their first attack during pregnancy, at delivery or in the puerperium. A total of 93 women with epilepsy had not used anticonvulsants in early pregnancy, 266 used drugs in monotherapy (10 different types of drug), 213 had 2 drugs, 65 had 3, 8 had 4, and 2 had 5 drugs. Differences in age, gravity, parity, marital status and smoking habits between the subgroups were studied. There was some statistically non‐significant increase in perinatal death rate and malformation rate after polytherapy compared to monotherapy, but this may, at least partly, be a selection bias and not a drug effect.