Sarah C. MacDonald, BSc, of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and colleagues, found that after adjusting for several confounders, women with epilepsy had a more than 10-fold increased risk of death during delivery hospitalization (adjusted odds ratio 11.46, 95% CI 8.64-15.19) compared with women without epilepsy (80 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies versus six deaths in 100,000 pregnancies).
via Epilepsy Increases Mortality Risk in Pregnant Women | Medpage Today.
“In this study of children ages 8 to 13, epilepsy was a risk factor for developing psychiatric symptoms and was a much stronger risk factor in girls than in boys. A number of other independent risk factors were also identified.”
Results: The study identified 26 completed suicides, 801 attempted suicides, and 41 violent deaths in 297 620 new episodes of treatment with an anticonvulsant (overall median follow-up, 60 days). The incidence of the composite outcomes of completed suicides, attempted suicides, and violent deaths for anticonvulsants used in at least 100 treatment episodes ranged from 6.2 per 1000 person-years for primidone to 34.3 per 1000 person-years for oxcarbazepine. The risk of suicidal acts was increased for gabapentin (hazard ratio [HR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.80), lamotrigine (HR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.43-2.37), oxcarbazepine (HR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.52-2.80), tiagabine (HR, 2.41; 95% CI, 1.65-3.52), and valproate (HR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.25-2.19), compared with topiramate. The analyses including violent death produced similar results. Gabapentin users had increased risk in subgroups of younger and older patients, patients with mood disorders, and patients with epilepsy or seizure when compared with carbamazepine.
Conclusion: This exploratory analysis suggests that the use of gabapentin, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine, and tiagabine, compared with the use of topiramate, may be associated with an increased risk of suicidal acts or violent deaths.
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