Taking Epilepsy Medication Valproate During Pregnancy Puts Child at Higher Risk for Autism

Taking certain medications during pregnancy can put you and your child at risks for a number of health complications. This includes the anti-seizure medication valproate, according to new research based on close to 700,000 babies born in Denmark. Previous studies have found more birth defects and lower intelligence among children of mothers who took the medication. However, new research shows strong evidence that taking the drug during pregnancy may cause a greater risk for autism.

The results don't prove the generic drug, also sold as valproic acid, causes autism. But researchers were able to account for a number of underlying factors - such as the age and health of the mothers and the babies' fathers - that make the study more convincing, Christopher Stodgell said.

"This finding isn't necessarily a brand new finding, but it's an important finding in that (researchers studied) really a much larger population, and they also looked at some other underlying drivers," said Stodgell, who studies the origins of autism at the University of Rochester Medical Center but wasn't involved in the new research.

Women "need to be very diligent about what the effects are if they're taking valproic acid," he said.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in 88 children has an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. Those conditions range from autism itself to less disabling ones such as Asperger's syndrome.

For the new study, researchers tracked 656,000 kids born in Denmark between 1996 and 2006. Using a large prescription drug database, they found that just under 6,600 of the mothers of those children had epilepsy and 508 women took valproate while pregnant.

By 2010, 4.4 percent of the kids whose mothers had taken valproate during pregnancy were diagnosed with any ASD, including 2.5 percent with autism.

In contrast, 1.5 percent of all babies in the study had an ASD and 0.5 percent had autism, according to the study. 

Mothers' underlying epilepsy didn't fully explain the link, according to Jakob Christensen from Aarhus University and his colleagues. In addition, autism rates were higher among children of women who used valproate during pregnancy than those who had previously used the drug but stopped before conceiving.

Many health officials have suggested that the drug could cause maturation of a fetus's brain, including the signal-sending neurtransmitters. However, having a seizure during birth can pose serious risks to the child and mother, also, including death.

It's important to consider both during pregnancy. There are also other medications and treatments available that may pose less harmful side-effects.

The findings were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.