Epilepsy and Pregnancy: How to Prepare for the Challenges

 

For many years, epilepsy was a major health concern for women looking to get pregnant and, as such, women with epilepsy were discouraged from conceiving. However, this is luckily not the case anymore as, due to regular and early prenatal care, 90% of women who have epilepsy give birth to a healthy baby. That said, it’s important to see how having epilepsy can affect your wellness, and the wellbeing of your baby, so that you’re prepared to meet any potential challenges.

 

1. Epilepsy and Conceiving: If you have epilepsy, you might find you have menstrual irregularities and other gynaecological problems which causes difficulties in becoming pregnant. Moreover, some of the drugs for treating epilepsy have been associated with reduced fertility. Oral contraceptives, on the other hand, may trigger epileptic seizures, and contraceptives themselves have a reduced effectiveness when used with antiepileptic drugs.

 

2. Epilepsy and Pregnancy Complications: There are several complications you face when you’ve got epilepsy and you’re pregnant. These include:

 

• Pronounced morning sickness


• Vaginal bleeding throughout and after the pregnancy,


• Anaemia


• Premature placental separations from the uterus (otherwise known as placenta abruption)


• Excess protein in the urine after the 20^th week of pregnancy


• High blood pressure after the 20^th week of pregnancy


• Preterm delivery


• Low birth weight of the child


• Disturbance during childbirth


• Children with congenital anomalies

 

3. Epilepsy and Changes in Pregnancy: Most women with epilepsy find that their seizures remain the same. However, every woman reacts differently during pregnancy. Some women find that their seizures become more rare, while those with a less-controlled disease find that their number of seizures increases during pregnancy.

 

4. Epilepsy Medication: During pregnancy, any drug you take can affect the wellness of your child. When it comes to antiepileptic drugs, this means increasing the occurrence of major risks and minor malformations in children such as neural tube defects, skeletal malformations, congenital heart defects and urinary tract, the lag in the growth and development of a slightly lower IQ, facial irregularities, cleft palate and more. This is especially true of drugs that contain valproate or use more AEDs at the same time. According to research undertaken by Data Foundation for Epilepsy, the risk of birth defects for all children is 2-3%, while, for children whose mothers are using antiepileptic therapy, this risk rises to 4-8%. The results of the research show that the biggest risk is when you use more than one drug, especially in high doses. However, without the treatment you need to control your seizures, a seizure might reduce the supply of oxygen to your child and increase the risk of miscarriage or stillbirth. In most cases, it’s safer to carry on taking your medication than to stop, but doctors recommend that you avoid valproate and the simultaneous use of multiple antiepileptic drugs.

 

5. Epilepsy and Your Child: As well as the influence of your antiepileptic drugs, you child may be slightly more likely to develop epilepsy themselves at some point in their life.

 

6. Epilepsy and Folic Acid: Pregnant women are often told to take folic acid supplements to prevent the occurrence of neural tube defects, serious disorders of the brain and spinal cord. However, anticonvulsants affect the way your body uses folic acid, so women with epilepsy will be recommended to begin three months prior to conception with a dose of 5mg of folic acid daily.

 

7. Epilepsy and Breastfeeding: In women that have epilepsy, breastfeeding is still encouraged. However, when you reach that time, it’s best to first consult your doctor as sometimes a different therapy is recommended.

 

Categories: Epilepsy, Medications, pregnancy

The Facts that Everyone Ought to Know About Epilepsy

Epilepsy can have a really strong effect on the mental/emotional health of the sufferer. It is a fairly common disease, too, affecting around 50 million people around the world. Epilepsy is characterised by seizures and affects the neurological wellness and wellbeing of sufferers. It is a frequently misunderstood disorder, too, and there are many myths associated with the disorder, which makes it harder for sufferers to receive appropriate treatment and care from those around them.

 

For example, many people think that epileptic seizures are a medical emergency and dial an ambulance as soon as they see one occurring. In truth, not all seizures can be classed as medical emergencies, and it is likely that someone who suffers from epilepsy may not need to travel to hospital in an ambulance following a seizure. Of course, if you are at all concerned about a patient or if you feel the seizure has gone on for too long, or there are repetitive seizures with no regaining of consciousness between them, then you absolutely should call an ambulance. It is also possible that the person having a seizure may injure themselves during the seizure, in which case you will need to call for medical attention. You should also always call for medical help if the person fitting is a pregnant woman. Other than that, though, an epileptic seizure is in itself not a medical emergency, if that person is a diagnosed epileptic and their condition is being managed.

 

There is also a myth that epilepsy sufferers are less intelligent than others, which his absolutely not the case. Although frequent seizures can interrupt the learning process, which can lead to a disturbed education, epilepsy itself does not cause lower intelligence. Most people with epilepsy have either normal or above average intelligence, and there are examples of talented people in history being known epileptics, such as Sir Isaac Newton, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Napoleon Bonaparte, Agatha Christie and Vincent Van Gough.

Categories: Emergency, Epilepsy, Medical, medical emergency, people, seizure, seizures

Are There Alternative Ways to Treat Your Epilepsy?

Epilepsy is a serious health condition that if left untreated can have serious repercussions for your wellness and wellbeing. There are standard treatments available, and everyone who has (or even suspects they may have) epilepsy should contact their doctor immediately and make sure that an approved plan of medical treatment is in place. There is also some research coming to light about alternative treatments for epilepsy, including large doses of vitamins, biofeedback and melatonin.

 

Epilepsy usually causes seizures, and it tends to occur when there is some kind of abnormal electrical activity going on in the brain. Seizures can vary greatly – the smallest seizures may go unnoticed, or in severe cases, seizures can cause convulsions (muscle spasms) or a loss of consciousness. Seizures can vary in duration as well as severity, and can also range from being a one-time event to being something that happens repeatedly.

 

Biofeedback has been investigated as a method of preventing seizures, and it involves using imagery or relaxation to change heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. A biofeedback practitioner measures these functions with a monitor and electrodes, whilst helping the patient to learn various relaxation techniques for stressful situations.

 

Melatonin is also being researched in terms of looking for a treatment for seizures. This is a hormone that is made in the pineal gland of the brain. It is often thought of as a sleep aid or an anti-aging aid, but there is also research that indicates that melatonin could reduce the incidence of seizures in young children, while another study showed that it appeared to have very little effect on seizures.

 

Finally, high-dose vitamins were being looked at in terms of their ability to help reduce seizures, but research found that vitamins do not improve the effects of epilepsy and may even do more harm than good.

Categories: Epilepsy, seizures, treatment

Could an Electrical Patch Help to Reduce Your Depression?

At this week’s conference on medical innovation at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, researchers presented an electrical patch that has been found to reduce depression. According to the scientists, if your mental wellness is affected by the syndrome, wearing the electrical patch on your forehead while sleeping that can help to treat the symptoms.

The device is similar to a sticking plaster connected to a small battery pack by wires, and works by stimulating the nerves beneath your skin to feed key areas of your brain that are associated with mood. So far, trials have shown that the device, which causes a mild tingling sensation, can lead to a 50% improvement in your mental wellbeing, if you suffer from depression. It also may reduce the occurrence of epileptic seizures in patients who do not respond to drug treatments.

Dr Christopher DeGiorgio, a professor of neurology at the University of California in Los Angeles who invented the device, known as an external trigeminal nerve stimulation patch, said, ‘The patch is placed on the skin above the eyebrows and stimulates the nerve under the skin. It generates pulses of very low current – it feels like a mild tingling. This particular nerve projects to key regions in the brain that modulate both epilepsy and mood. We have found that it increases blood flow in areas of the brain that have decreased blood flow in people with depression.’

You replace the patch after each use with a fresh adhesive patch, and small scale clinical trials have shown that wearing it for at least eight hours over night could bring improvements in mood for people suffering from depression. This could improve the wellness of the one in ten adults in the UK who have been diagnosed with the condition at some point in their life, according to official statistics. The stats also show that prescriptions for antidepressant drugs, which can cause a number of side effects, have risen fourfold in the past 20 years.

Dr DeGiorgio noted that the device ‘stabilises the activity in areas of the brain of people who suffer from epilepsy,’ and Dr Leon Ekchian, chief executive at NeuroSigma, the company responsible for marketing the device, added that they were also now developing an implant based on the same idea that could be worn around the clock by epilepsy sufferers. He said, ‘If patients stop using their device, they see increased seizure rate again after a few days, so we are developing an implantable system so they don’t have the inconvenience of having to put it on each night.’ The device has now been approved for use in the European Union and the team are hoping it will become available on the NHS later this year.

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Could an Electrical Patch Help to Reduce Your Depression?

Categories: Depression Relief, Electric Patch, Epilepsy