EUROCAT study: Intrauterine exposure to carbamazepine and specific malformations: a case-control study

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is together with valproic acid the most used antiepileptic drug (AED) all over Europe. Several studies have been published evaluating the risk of carbamazepin related to general major congenital malformations (MCM) and CBZ seems to be less teratogenic than VPA. Although, 3000-4000 CBZ exposed pregnancies are described in the literature, less is known about specific malformations related to first trimester exposure to CBZ monotherapy. The EUROCAT Antiepileptic Drug Database, used for the lamotrigine study, covers 3,881,592  and contains 135 CBZ monotherapy exposed malformed registrations more than in any other published study. This gives us the opportunity to investigate which specific congenital anomalies are associated to carbamazepine.