Visual spatial skills help individuals find their orientation in space through taking in information from the world around them and organizing that visual information to create an understanding of meaningful patterns. It is one of a number of cognitive functions that also include perception, attention, memory, motor skills and language. These are population-based registers that collect data from medical records about the prenatal, delivery and neonatal care of pregnant women and their offspring. Such registers support the monitoring of the health of pregnant women and their offspring and are used for research purposes.
Limited published non-clinical studies report of teratogenicity in rodents however, in company sponsored studies no teratogenicity was reported in rodents and rabbits at plasma concentrations far exceeding human therapeutic doses. In considering the conflicting data regarding the teratogenic potential of pregabalin, no firm conclusions can be drawn of its potential teratogenic effect. Prescribing trend data show that prescribing prevalence rates for pregabalin are high and have been increasing over time but this is reflective of the increasing use in the pain and anxiety indications. In June 2019, the rate was 75.94 prescriptions per 10,000 eligible women of childbearing age women (CPRD GOLD), making pregabalin the second most frequently prescribed antiepileptic drug in women of childbearing age among the drugs which have been prioritised for review.
Cross sectional observational study
- Where clinical studies have examined a dose-response, the findings are mixed; the larger studies are more supportive of an increased risk with increasing doses of carbamazepine (Tomson et al 2018, UKEPR) but other smaller studies are not (Hernandez Diaz et al 2012, Samren et al 1997).
- Therefore, its use in epilepsy is likely limited and the product information reflects that the available data on pregnancy outcomes is also limited.
- In 2021 he received the Paul Satz Mentoring Award from the International Neuropsychological Society, given to those whose mentoring has had a profound effect on the careers of students in the field of neuropsychology nationally and internationally.
- If a 95% CI does not cross 1, the ratio is regarded as statistically significant.
During the critical period, synapses that receive visual stimulation and pass on action potentials into the visual cortex are retained and strengthened. Synapses that do not receive visual stimulation, so the neurones between them are not firing, are removed. This means that if visual stimulation does not occur during the critical period (i.e. if a baby is born with cataracts which obscure vision or if they are born in a cave) then their visual cortex will not develop properly because many of the synapses will have been destroyed. Evidence for a ‘critical period’ comes from some cerebrumiq ethically-dubious experiments on kittens (see below). The visual cortex is a region at the back of our brains and forms part of the cerebral cortex. Neurones in the visual cortex receive information from either our right or left eye and are clustered together in structures called ocular dominance columns.
Learning Styles and Preferences
Confidence intervals (CI) are used to assess the true difference in risk between two groups, and usually accompany ratio values such as odds ratios, hazard ratios and ‘observed versus expected’ ratios. A 95% CI suggests that there is a 95% chance that the real difference between two groups is within this interval. If a 95% CI does not cross 1, the ratio is regarded as statistically significant.
The following report discusses our review of the non-clinical and clinical data relating to the safety of antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy. A study in the nationwide Swedish Medical birth register (Margulis et al 2019) reported on the outcomes for 562 pregabalin exposed infants compared to those exposed to lamotrigine. However, it is considered there is a strong possibility that residual confounding may have had an effect on the pregabalin analyses given the distinct profile of pregabalin users (younger, less well-educated and more likely to be obese or smokers). Non-clinical studies report on neurobehavioral effects in the offspring of rats given pregabalin during gestation and lactation but at doses which generated plasma concentrations higher than human therapeutic doses. Non-clinical studies also suggest that neurobehavioural effects can occur following dosing of juvenile rats at doses relevant to human therapeutic doses, however, reversibility has been observed upon discontinuation of dosing. Published scientific literature has reported that phenytoin exposure during pregnancy can induce behavioural abnormalities in animal offspring at plasma concentrations relevant to human therapeutic doses.