Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone had seen any studies relating premature birth and epilepsy… a lady with a six year old daughter wrote to me recently to ask this, her daughter just started having seizures, and she was told the prematurity might have been a factor. She also suffered from pre-eclampsia and was on bed rest from 30 weeks on… I’m sure there are other people on this board who might know about this.
The other questions she had relate to learning disabilities and epilepsy medications, which I have also seen mentioned here, so any input on that would be helpful also. I know that premature birth is a risk factor for learning disabilities, I read somewhere that one of the reasons the incidence of LDs is rising is because so many more preemies survive, thanks to improved medical technology. I’m curious though if anyone knows whether the drugs used to treat epilepsy are themselves implicated in some ways as to causing Learning Disabilities, and if so, what people have done about it…
Thanks for all the input!
Sharon
Re: LD's, epilepsy and premature babies
My 18 yr old son started having seizures when he was 11, but was dx with LD a few years before that. It is often difficult to say if his LD is cuased by the underlying reson for the seizures, by the seizure activity itself, or by the seizure medications. My guess is a combo of all of these factors.
Becky
Sharon,
I can’t say whether the seizure meds actually “cause” LD’s. I have seizures. When I was pregnant with my now 7 year old daughter, I had pre-eclampsia symptoms also. She was diagnosed with absence (petit mal) seizures at age 4. She was on valproic acid (generic for depakote). I didn’t notice any problems except that she was several years behind. I figured it was from the seizures. She was in spec ed her pre-K year but tested out of it at the end of the year. She was at or above age level. She was on meds all this time and the seizures were controlled. She was diagnosed with ADD over a year ago. She was just recently taken off the meds. Both her teacher and I noticed she seemed a bit “sharper” as she was weaned off the meds, but the ADD symptoms are still there. I strongly suspect auditory processing, too. Did the meds/seizures “cause” the other problems? I don’t know. I strongly suspect she would have had these problems anyway. I don’t know if this is any help to you or not, but I hope so.
Sherri