(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Though the findings are preliminary, researchers believe there’s a good chance that anti-seizure medications taken by breastfeeding mothers will not harm their babies.

A study from the University of Florida in Gainesville tested the cognitive development of two year olds whose mothers were taking the epilepsy drugs lamotrigine (Lamictal), carbamazepine (Tegretol), phenytoin (Dilantin) and valproate (Depacon).

The results showed babies who were breastfed had higher cognitive test scores than those who were not breastfed, no matter which of the medications the mothers took. It is important to note that the study’s author, Kimford Meador, M.D., and his team report the scores themselves were not significant after adjusting for the mother’s IQ -- the higher scores for the breastfed children appear to be due to the fact that the mothers had higher IQs.
 

Concern about the effect of these drugs on breastfed babies came from animal studies that showed some anti-seizure drugs could cause cells to die in immature brains. The unborn child is protected during pregnancy by the effects of the hormone estradiol. That protection is lost after birth.

“Our early findings show breastfeeding during anti-epilepsy drug treatment doesn’t appear to have a negative impact on a child’s cognitive ability,” Dr. Meador was quoted as saying. “However, more research is needed to confirm out findings and women should use caution due to the limitations of our study.”

Dr. Meador hopes to extend the research to other anti-seizure drugs and mothers who use more than one of them.

SOURCE: Presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 60th Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12-19, 2008