Gorman, Megan Othersen
Brandy Parker-McFadden had always considered herself one of the lucky ones, and by any measure she was. Diagnosed with epilepsy at age 15 after her first convulsive seizure, Parker-McFadden, now 40, has had just three seizures in the 25 years since. “I took my medications faithfully and went on with my life,” she says. “I grew up, I got married, and I had a baby—and then two more. Through it all, my epilepsy was well controlled with medication. From the outside, it was almost as though I didn’t have it.”
This was thanks in large part to valproate, an antiseizure medication prescribed by her neurologist that is often used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder and to prevent migraines. So when her neurologist instructed her obstetrician to increase the dosage during her first pregnancy to ensure that the medicine remained at a therapeutic level within her body, Parker-McFadden didn’t question it.
That was 12 years ago, in 2003. Parker’s firstborn, Samuel, is now 11.
“Samuel was born right around the time we got the first information on cognitive risks to babies exposed to valproate in utero,” says Kimford J. Meador, MD, a professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University Medical Center in California, clinical services director of the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (FAAN). “There were hints in the epilepsy pregnancy registries [online databases cataloging the experiences of pregnant women taking epilepsy drugs], but what wasn’t fully known until 2004 is that one in 10 children exposed to valproate in utero will have a major complication—plus a 7- to 10-point drop in IQ. Verbal intelligence, in particular, is affected.”
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