Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Practice Point
  • Published:

Changes in plasma levetiracetam concentrations in pregnant women and their breastfed infants

Nature Clinical Practice Neurology volume 3, pages 538–539 (2007)Cite this article

boxed-textTomson T et al. (2007) Pharmacokinetics of levetiracetam during pregnancy, delivery, in the neonatal period, and lactation. Epilepsia 48: 1111–1116

Plasma levetiracetam levels decline markedly during pregnancy, and their measurement can assist clinical management of epilepsy; mothers treated with levetiracetam should be permitted to breastfeed because adverse effects in the infant are unlikely

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Perucca E (2005) Birth defects after prenatal exposure to antiepileptic drugs. Lancet Neurol 4: 781–786

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Crawford P (2005) Best practice guidelines for the management of women with epilepsy. Epilepsia 46 (Suppl 9): S117–S124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Tomson T (2005) Gender aspects of pharmacokinetics of new and old antiepileptic drugs: pregnancy and breast feeding. Ther Drug Monit 27: 718–721

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Tomson T and Battino D (2007) Pharmacokinetics and therapeutic drug monitoring of newer antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy and the puerperium. Clin Pharmacokinet 46: 209–219

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Christensen J et al. (2006) Oxcarbazepine concentrations during pregnancy: a retrospective study in patients with epilepsy. Neurology 67: 1497–1499

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The synopsis was written by Rosalind Archer, Editorial Assistant, Nature Clinical Practice.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Institute of Neurology, IRCCS C Mondino, Foundation and Clinical Pharmacology Unit, University of Pavia, Piazza Botta 10, 27100 Pavia, Italy perucca@unipv.it

Authors and Affiliations

  1. E Perucca is Director of Laboratories for Diagnostics and Applied Biological Research at the Institute of Neurology, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.,

    Emilio Perucca

Authors
  1. Emilio Perucca
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author has received speaker's or consultancy fees and/or research grants from the manufacturers of arbamazepine and oxcarbazepine (Novartis), ethosuxinmide, gabapentin, phenytoin and pregabalin (Pfizer), lamotrigine (GlaxoSmithKline), levetiracetam (UCB Pharma), tiagabine, valproic acid and vigabatrin (sanofi-aventis), rufinamide and zonisamide (Eisai) and topiramate (Johnson & Johnson).

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Pharmacokinetic changes of old-generation and new-generation antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy (DOC 24 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Perucca, E. Changes in plasma levetiracetam concentrations in pregnant women and their breastfed infants. Nat Rev Neurol 3, 538–539 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpneuro0604

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpneuro0604

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing