Women with epilepsy are five times more likely to die during pregnancy than others. Researchers are worried.
For a Danish woman, the risk of dying during pregnancy is minimal, unless she has epilepsy. In this specific case, the risk is multiplied by five, according to a new epidemiological study published in the journal Neurology. The same association was observed in the United States and the United Kingdom, with even more worrying figures (the risks there would be multiplied by ten).
Out of around two million pregnant women – including 12,000 women with epilepsy – 176 Danish women have died during pregnancy. Five of them were epileptic. “This means that women with epilepsy are a risk group that we should consider monitoring more closely,” said Jakob Christensen, co-author of the study. “Although the absolute risk is low, we must ask ourselves how better to monitor pregnant women with epilepsy than today,” he adds.
The causes of death
It is estimated that 600,000 people suffer from epilepsy in France. Almost half of them are under the age of 20. Globally, the incidence of the disease is estimated to be 50 to 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, or 60 million patients. According to the trial, the causes of death of pregnant women with epilepsy are the same as the causes of death of other pregnant women: accident, cancer, suicide, blood clots … Simply, this happens more frequently in epileptics.
“We cannot produce statistics on the causes of death based on five pregnant women with epilepsy who died, but we can conclude with high statistical certainty that pregnant women with epilepsy die five times more often than other pregnant women,” said again Jakob Christensen. For him, one of the causes of their death is that no doctor wants to take full responsibility for monitoring the pregnancy and the health of a woman with epilepsy; neurologists, gynecologists and attending physicians would constantly pass the buck.
A real “storm” running through many neurons
In general, people with epilepsy have a higher death rate than the rest of the population. For women of childbearing age, the death rate is fifteen times higher. The relative risk of death is therefore lower for women with epilepsy who are pregnant than for all women with epilepsy, which may be due to the fact that it is always the healthier women who become pregnant.
It should be noted, however, that the majority of women with epilepsy can have healthy children. Epilepsy is a neurological (nervous system) condition. It is characterized by sudden and excessive discharges of nerve impulses (electrical signals) in the brain, a veritable “storm” running through many neurons. This disease gives rise to epileptic seizures which can recur for several months or even years. This is why we distinguish epilepsy “disease”, epileptic seizures, which occur in isolation.
.