Epilepsy 'increases risk of mental illness postpartum'
Women on antiepileptic drugs are at particularly high risk, researchers say
New mothers with epilepsy are 10 times more likely to be readmitted to hospital for a psychiatric illness within a month of giving birth than those without epilepsy, a study shows.
Despite both epilepsy and recent childbirth each being associated with increased mental health vulnerability, the literature on postpartum psychiatric illness in women with epilepsy was sparse, the US researchers said.
Drawing on a nationwide hospital readmissions database, the team from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York