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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Pentylenetetrazole-Induced Kindling Mouse Model
Published on: June 12, 2018
Antiepileptic drugs as human teratogens
1University of Queensland, and Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Herston, Brisbane, Australia 4029, Australia. M.Eadie@uq.edu.au
Background:
There is still uncertainty concerning the risk of fetal malformation associated with the intake of various individual antiepileptic drugs in pregnant women.
Objective:
To assess the better-quality available evidence concerning the fetal hazards from exposure to antiepileptic drug monotherapy during human pregnancy.
Method:
Examination of the available English language literature, particularly that dealing with individual antiepileptic drugs used in monotherapy, in the larger case series with better-quality internal comparison data.
Conclusions:
There is reasonable evidence that valproate is a significant teratogen during therapeutic use in women; the other older antiepileptic drugs (phenobarbitone, phenytoin, carbamazepine) probably have some teratogenic potential, but less than valproate; the situation regarding the more recently marketed antiepileptic drugs is not yet clear.
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