Authors :
Presenting Author: Emma Osterhaus, BS – University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Wesley Kerr, MD, PhD – University of Pittsburgh Neurology
Kimford Meador, MD – Stanford University
Maxime Baud, MD, PhD – University Hospital, University of Bern
Jacqueline French, MD – Department of Neurology and Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health
Paula Voinescu, MD, PhD – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School
Elizabeth Gerard, MD – Northwestern University
Page Pennell, MD – University of Pittsburgh
Rationale:
Multi-day seizure cycling includes both roughly monthly menstrual-related catamenial patterns and other non-monthly patterns. Given that sex steroid hormones and neuroactive steroid metabolites do not cycle but increase in a linear pattern throughout gestation, we hypothesized that monthly catamenial patterns would no longer occur in pregnancy. Prior studies suggest that women with catamenial patterns may have seizure improvement in pregnancy. In contrast, we hypothesized that non-monthly seizure cycles would not be impacted by pregnancy. To evaluate these hypotheses, we utilized the prospective longitudinal seizure diary data from the Maternal Outcomes and Neurodevelopmental Effects of Anti-epileptic Drugs (MONEAD) study.
Methods:
For this secondary analysis, we evaluated the pregnant women (age 14-45 years) with epilepsy (PWWE) group in MONEAD. Enrollment was <