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Review
. 2022 Nov:136:108769.
doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2022.108769. Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Breastfeeding recommendations for women taking anti-seizure medications

Abrar O Al-Faraj  1 , Trudy D Pang  2
Affiliations
Review

Breastfeeding recommendations for women taking anti-seizure medications

Abrar O Al-Faraj et al. Epilepsy Behav. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

The literature regarding breastfeeding and effects of anti-seizure medication (ASM) exposure on the breastfed infant has been evolving rapidly over the last decade as new studies advance our understanding of the extent of medication exposure via breastfeeding and the long-term developmental outcomes of breastfed infants. Currently, strong evidence supports the safety of breastfeeding for women with epilepsy (WWE) taking most prescribed ASMs. In this review, we present a comprehensive overview of the data regarding ASM exposure in breastfed infants and neurodevelopmental outcomes in breastfed infants of mothers taking various ASMs. In addition, we present current breastfeeding recommendations and the reported adverse effects of various ASMs to facilitate decision making in the clinical care of WWE.

Keywords: Anti-seizure medications; Breastfeeding; Counseling; Drug exposure; Neurodevelopment; Women with epilepsy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.