Epileptic women can have safe pregnancy and children thanks to newer drugs: Expert

Nagpur: Myths about epilepsy have been preventing women from getting married and having children. But with newer drugs with minimal or zero side effects available now, it is possible for every epileptic woman to conceive a child. The only precaution, however, is that the woman must continue with the drugs during the pregnancy as otherwise the chances of having effect on the baby increases 10 times.
Dr Chandrashekhar Meshram, senior neurologist, says generally there is a myth that women with epilepsy on treatment should not have children. But the fact is there are many safe medicines for epilepsy to be taken during pregnancy. Women with epilepsy can undergo normal pregnancy, childbirth and also breastfeed.

“Almost 10% of the newer medicines are now made in India and hence are affordable. Epileptic women must discuss their plan to have children with doctors so that they can plan their medicines as if the patient doesn’t take medicines, especially in first three months of pregnancy then the effect to the foetus can be huge. But this is no way means that women with epilepsy cannot have children,” clarified Dr Meshram.

In fact, even many gynaecologists are not aware that epileptic women can have a baby without any problem. They generally tell such women to abort the baby. But Dr Meshram says it is vital that they don’t have seizures during pregnancy for which good drugs are available.

Epilepsy is a common brain disorder in the world afflicting about 50 million people worldwide. Every year, 2.4 million new cases are added. It is a treatable and preventable disease. However, 80% of patients in developing countries are not taking treatment due to a lot of misconceptions regarding epilepsy. Therefore, it is of great importance to dispel the common myths about epilepsy, he said.

Many still live with the myth that epilepsy occurs because of evil spirits whereas an epileptic attack occurs when there is sudden and abnormal increase in electrical activity in the brain. Many even consider it as contagious. This prevents people from helping those having seizures. Another major misconception is that the disease is hereditary. But truth is if parents have epilepsy then only 1 % of their children will get epilepsy. There are many other causes of epilepsy like head injury, stroke, brain infections, injury during childbirth, brain tumours, developmental diseases of brain etc.

There is also a belief that there is no cure for epilepsy. But with proper treatment, 70% patients can be completely cured and in others the frequency of attacks can be reduced. Another misconception is that all epileptic attacks occur with convulsions or jerks. However, there are various types of seizures and their manifestations depend on in which part of the brain seizures originate. Epilepsy may manifest with violent muscle spasms, strange behaviour, emotions, sensations, convulsions or loss of consciousness. In complex partial seizures and absences there are no convulsions.