Lamotrigine dosing for pregnant patients with bipolar disorder.

Objective: Little information is available on the need for dosage changes for lamotrigine in pregnant women with bipolar disorder. The authors present new data on serial serum levels of lamotrigine in pregnant patients on lamotrigine monotherapy. They also review the epilepsy literature on use of lamotrigine during pregnancy.

Neuroimaging in pregnancy: a review of clinical indications and obstetric outcomes.

Objective: To determine indications and outcomes of pregnant women requiring neurologic imaging at a tertiary care center.

Methods: We reviewed medical records of women receiving magnetic resonance (MR) head imaging during pregnancy to determine indications for such imaging and their pregnancy outcomes.

Results: Between April 2007 and December 2008, 60 pregnant women presented to Brigham and Women's Hospital with severe headache or other acute neurologic complaint and underwent head imaging.

Epilepsy cases in pregnant and postpartum women: a practical approach.

Approximately one million women with epilepsy in the United States are in their active reproductive years. Many women with epilepsy require treatment during pregnancy, and many antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are potential teratogens. Unfortunately, many pregnancies are often not identified until after organ formation has occurred.

Early postpartum headache: case discussions.

Headaches are a common complaint for most women during their lifetime, including gestation and puerperium. Tension-type headaches and migraine flare-ups are the most common headache complications after delivery, but the differential diagnosis of postpartum headache is broad. The clinician must distinguish common headache syndromes from dangerous causes of postpartum headache.

The neuroprotective role of creatine.

Significant progress has been made in identifying neuroprotective agents and their translation to patients with neurological disorders. While the direct causative pathways of neurodegeneration remain unclear, they are under great clinical and experimental investigation. There are a number of interrelated pathogenic mechanisms triggering molecular events that lead to neuronal death.