BACKGROUND:

The prevalence of epilepsy in pregnant women is 0.3 to 0.5%. Although it is a low frequency disease, it is important to know how pregnancy modifies the course of the disease and how the disease modifies the course of pregnancy and what is the safety of treatments during pregnancy and what are the current obstetric consensuses in this regard.

OBJECTIVE:

To update knowledge about how pregnancy modifies the course of the disease, how the disease modifies the course of pregnancy, how safe are the treatments during pregnancy and the current obstetric consensus in this respect.

METHODOLOGY:

Literature review conducted in two databases (PubMed and Scopus) with the following search criteria (MeSH): "epilepsy" and "pregnancy" of articles published between 2015 and May 2022, written in English or Spanish: meta-analyses, systematic reviews, narratives or clinical trials.

RESULTS:

310 records were identified. After elimination for duplication and other causes, 20 articles were selected, plus others used to complement the topic.

CONCLUSIONS:

Pregnancy in a patient with epilepsy should be considered high risk and therefore follow-up should be appropriate. Pregnancy planning is essential in order to indicate the appropriate antiepileptic treatment and folic acid supplementation, if necessary.

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