Focus on Epilepsy Series of Frequently Asked Questions

  Does epilepsy have an effect on the offspring?  Apart from genetic factors, there is no significant effect on the fetus if the father has epilepsy. However, if the mother has epilepsy, especially if she continues to take antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy, the effects on the fetus are manifold. First, the fetus is stunted in utero, with poor adaptability and organ function, and neurological development is also affected. Secondly, the fetal mortality rate is 2-3 times higher than that of the average mother’s fetus.  The risk of fetal epilepsy after birth is 3 times higher than in fetuses of healthy mothers. In addition to the effects of medications on the fetus, antiepileptic drugs can enter the fetal bloodstream through the placenta and can lead to developmental malformations in the fetus.  If the mother has a seizure during pregnancy, especially a so-called grand mal seizure, the effect on the fetus is even greater. The fetus is also suffocated during the mother’s seizure and her heart rate slows down; in addition, the mother’s abdominal muscles contract strongly during the seizure, compressing the uterus and reducing its blood flow. In such conditions, the normal development of the fetus is bound to be affected, especially the brain, which is the most sensitive to hypoxia and ischemia, and is likely to lead to delayed intellectual development after birth.  The actual fact is that you can find a lot of people who have a good deal of experience in the field and are able to get a great deal of information on the way to get a great deal of money. If one parent is determined to have definite hereditary epilepsy, the birth of the child should be resolutely abandoned, and prenatal diagnosis should be performed once the pregnancy is conceived, and abortion should be performed immediately if the patient is found to have a hereditary disease. For patients with epilepsy, if the first child is born with epilepsy, the second child should be firmly prohibited.  In order to prevent epilepsy caused by brain injury at birth, if the birth process is expected to be uneventful, early caesarean section should be performed to avoid epilepsy caused by hypoxia, asphyxia and birth injury.  For epilepsy caused by various intracranial infections, these infections should be actively prevented, and once intracranial infectious diseases have occurred, they should be diagnosed early and treated correctly to reduce the degree of brain tissue damage. In the acute phase of intracranial infection, many patients often have seizures, when antiepileptic drugs should be used in a timely and adequate amount to reduce the damage to brain tissue caused by seizures and also to reduce the chance of seizures in the future.  4, prevention of epilepsy caused by traumatic brain injury, focusing on the prevention of traumatic brain injury, to avoid traumatic brain injury caused by work, traffic accidents.  5. Preventive measures should be taken early for febrile convulsions with the possibility of recurrence, which can greatly reduce the brain damage caused by febrile convulsions and also reduce the incidence of epilepsy.  6, remove seizure triggers, is one of the important links to prevent recurrence of epilepsy, such as drinking, smoking, fatigue, mental depression, overeating, infectious diseases, frightening fever, sleep deprivation, marriage of close relatives and harmful sound and light stimulation.  7, the most important point of drug treatment is that once you start taking medication, you must adhere to it, not suddenly interrupt, only then can effectively control the seizure, if the seizure has been completely controlled, reduce the amount of medication should be gradually reduced, not suddenly stop. If a relapse occurs during the discontinuation or reduction of medication, the original therapeutic dose should be restored immediately under the guidance of the doctor.  For women with epilepsy of pregnancy age, it is best to wait until the epilepsy is completely controlled and the medication is discontinued before getting pregnant. A few patients with epilepsy have excessive risk of pregnancy and should consider temporarily giving up pregnancy.