Epilepsy Drug Raises Risk for Schizophrenia?

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Georgetown University researchers say common drugs used to treat epilepsy patients may lead to schizophrenia.

A history of seizures during infancy leaves a person at significantly higher risk of developing schizophrenia later in life, but researchers aren't sure whether the seizures themselves or the drugs used to treat them are to blame. A study at Georgetown University Medical Center brings the scientific community closer to an answer.

Results of the study suggest antiepileptic drug (AED) treatments like phenobarbitol may trigger schizophrenia-like behaviors in its users when given during the brain's developmental period. Animal models that received AEDs during critical periods of brain development showed an increase in such behaviors.

"[The study] raises important questions regarding the side effects of a widely-used class of drugs," Guillermo Palchik, doctoral student in the department of pediatrics at GUMC, was quoted as saying. "Phenobarbital and other AEDs are not only used as a treatment for seizures, but more generally in the treatment of migraines, neuropathic pain and mood disorders, among other ailments, and can be considered drugs of abuse."

SOURCE: Presented at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, 2009

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