Antiepileptic Drug Pregnancy Registry

The North American AED (antiepileptic drug) Pregnancy Registry was established in 1997 for pregnant women in the United States and Canada at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established with funds provided by six companies that manufacture "old" and "new" anticonvulsant drugs. The major objective is to obtain and publish information on the frequency of major malformations, such as heart defects, spina bifida and cleft lip, among infants whose mothers had taken one or more AEDs to prevent seizures or to treat any other medical condition. The highest priority was new information on the many "new" AEDs marketed in the past 10 years.