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Keeping newborns on antiseizure medication after acute neonatal seizures stopped did not change development outcomes or prevent epilepsy, a comparative effectiveness study showed.
No difference was seen in functional neurodevelopment at age 24 months in children whose antiseizure medication was discontinued versus maintained after acute symptomatic neonatal seizures resolved, reported Hannah Glass, MDCM, MAS, of the University of California San Francisco, and co-authors, in
Overall, 13% of children developed epilepsy, which was not associated with treatment duration. Median age at epilepsy onset was 7 months.
"More than 16,000 babies in the U.S. have seizures each year due to a variety of causes, most commonly brain injury around the time of birth," Glass said. "Many of these children have lifelong disabilities and medical conditions like cerebral palsy and epilepsy," she told