The number of exposures in the available clinical studies remains very limited and this is an area where further study would be very important. Overall, very few clinical studies have examined the risk of major congenital malformations in pregnancies exposed to zonisamide and the number of pregnancies exposed to monotherapy is very small (less than 100 pregnancies). Further clinical data are available from a small retrospective questionnaire-based study conducted in Japan (Kondo et al 1996) and the Swedish Medical Birth Register (Källén et al., 2013). The study by Kondo et al reported on the outcomes of 26 pregnancies, of which only 4 were pregnancies exposed to zonisamide monotherapy.
CPRD data also show that among the prioritised antiepileptic drugs it is the one that is most commonly prescribed in pregnancy. These data suggest that there is substantial use in women of childbearing potential and also during pregnancy. The Good Laboratory Practice studies are well designed for the purposes of detecting teratogenic effects of substances.
- Two individual studies in national birth registers (Almgren et al 2009, Margulis et al 2019) were not included in the meta-analysis and have suggested reduced fetal head circumference following carbamazepine exposure.
- Similar to the findings for teratogenic effects, the limited picture caused by the dosing restrictions mean that caution is required with regards to the interpretation of these data.
- It may be a child or adult.Please take a few minutes to read our short Introduction page about labels.
- But a decade ago, this hypothesis was just an educated guess with little supporting evidence-based research.
- Peripheral neuropathy develops when nerves in the body’s extremities, such as the hands, feet and arms, are damaged.
Adjunctive treatment/therapy
- Knight R. Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Children Exposed to Newer Anti-Seizure Medications in the Womb.
- This is a literacy through which you come to understand your brain, and acquire the tools and techniques for learning.
- Data from the CPRD suggests that among the prioritised antiepileptics drugs that gabapentin is one that is commonly initiated in women of childbearing age with epilepsy and also that it is among the most commonly prescribed antiepileptic drugs in pregnancy.
- A birth defect affecting the heart where a baby is born is a hole in the wall (septum) that divides the two upper chambers (atria) of the heart.
It is the most common facial birth defect in the UK affecting around 1 in every 700 babies. The corporate world for example could optimise its training budgets much more effectively if trainers and employees utilised this knowledge, and students studying could spend less time on revision yet achieve far better results in their examinations. Finally the lowest brain frequency is the “delta” wave state (equivalent to sleep) which also has importance in learning but will not be covered here. Christopher Bergland is a retired ultra-endurance athlete turned science writer, public health advocate, and promoter of cerebellum (“little brain”) optimization.
Pregnancy Registry
NICE guidance recommends that phenytoin can be used as adjunctive treatment for convulsive status epilepticus in hospital and may be considered on referral to tertiary care for the treatment of focal seizures. Phenytoin (brand name Epanutin) is indicated for the control of tonic-clonic seizures (grand mal epilepsy), partial seizures (focal including temporal lobe) or a combination of these, and for the prevention and treatment of seizures occurring during or following neurosurgery and/or severe head injury. NICE guidance recommends that it can be used as adjunctive treatment in convulsive status epilepticus and may be considered for use by a tertiary epilepsy specialist in cerebrumiq focal seizures when adjunctive treatment is not effective or not tolerated.
They want to know if others felt what they’re feeling – disappointment, pride, shock, confusion. In addition to raw scores, CerebrumIQ could offer more structured interpretation – what certain results might mean for different professions, for example, or how scores vary across cognitive styles. It can be an invitation to reconsider how one defines – and demonstrates – intelligence. The most constructive CerebrumIQ review stories tend to come from users who view their results as a starting point, not a verdict. These individuals often talk about how the test helped them identify specific strengths or weaknesses, which they then used to focus their learning or adapt their work habits. In this teacher’s case, their question wasn’t really about whether they could do math fast or recognize sequences.
Key findings for carbamazepine
There are extremely limited clinical data available to inform on the effect of topiramate exposure during pregnancy and the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in the offspring. Data from a very small study by Rihtman et al (2012), that involved only 9 children whose mothers had taken topiramate during pregnancy suggested that, compared with control children, topiramate had an adverse effect on cognitive, motor, and behavioural outcomes, as well as on IQ score, and motor and visual spatial skills. In contrast, a retrospective observational study in the UK Epilepsy and Pregnancy Registry (Bromley et al 2016b) reported on data for 27 children who had prenatal exposure to topiramate and the findings did not suggest reductions in the cognitive abilities of the children.
As they tire, their visual processing capacity can rapidly and markedly diminish, in severe cases leaving the person functionally blind. This is not just visual fatigue, but is something we believe needs more research and understanding. StimmingStimming is short for self-stimulating behaviour, and is commonly seen in autistic people who may repeatedly make the same movement, like waving a hand or tapping something over and over. The cause is not known, the purpose is not known, and whether the person has any control over the behaviour is not known. This means the view that it is a ‘self-stimulation behaviour’ is not correct, and for this reason the term ‘stimming’ is not widely used. It is an observation of repetitive body movements, that is all we really know at present, although there are many theories.