Monday, May 5, 2008

Study: Breastfeeding while on Antiepileptic Drugs (like Lamictal) OK.

I was happy to read this morning on WebMD that a study released a few weeks ago says that the use of epilepsy medications does not appear to affect cognitive abilities in babies. In fact the breastfed infants whose mothers were on anticonvulsants (like Lamictal which I'm on to treat my bipolar disorder) scored higher on the scored Mental Development Index.

I've now been breastfeeding for 4 1/2 months and I continually wonder if being exposed to lamictal affects my daughter. As I posted previously the studies on the subject are very limited however none showed negative results they just showed that the drug is passed through breastmilk to the baby.

Here's the article

5 comments:

Shannon said...

This study is awesome!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for finding this! I have a 2 1/2 year old who has CP. I did take lamicatal while nursing for many months. It was a big debate among my doctors and family. Since there was no research, I've always wondered if the lamicatal had something to do with the CP.

Unknown said...

I hope the study has put your mind at ease. I know how easy it is to second guess yourself whenever we make decisions and aren't 100% sure of them when we make them.

Anonymous said...

i'm bipolar and pregnant. it's kind of terrifying! i'm glad to know that there are no immediate effects to taking lamictal and breastfeeding. i really want to nurse. thanks.

Anonymous said...

What a great resource!