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During pregnancy, what a woman puts into her body could affect the unborn child in some way. Due to the risk of harming the fetus, several studies have researched the effects of certain medications that some women might need to take to control chronic illnesses or other diseases. In a new study, researchers examined the potential effects of taking epilepsy drugs during pregnancy. They found that the drug, levetiracetam did not appear to affect preschool child development.

In this study, researchers tracked a total of 248 children who were either three- or four-years-old. 53 children were exposed to levetiracetam, 44 were exposed to valproate and 151 were born to mothers without epilepsy and had no exposure to either drug. The researchers tested the children's thinking, movement and language skills.

The team concluded that the children exposed to levetiracetam and the children exposed to no drugs had similar results, suggesting the levetiracetam does not negatively affect preschool children development. Children who were exposed to valproate, however, had scores that were lower. These children scored 16 points lower on movement tests, 10 points lower on expressive language tests and six points lower on language comprehension tests on average.

"These results are heartening, as the use of levetiracetam has increased in recent years, but there has been limited information on its effect on the thinking, movement and language abilities of children. However this is the first study to look at the effects of levetiracetam and further research is needed before we can be certain there are no associations. It is very important that women do not stop taking their medication before speaking to their healthcare professional," said study author Rebekah Shallcross, PhD, of the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

The study was published in the journal, Neurology.