Table 1.
Effects of prenatal or early life exposure to phenytoin in children and laboratory animals.
| Phenytoin | Effects on offspring of maternal AED use |
Effects on offspring of early postnatal use |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human | Rodent | Human | Rodent | |
| Somatic | ||||
| General body size | Decreased | Decreased, high mortality | High mortality | |
| Facial features | Mixed results | |||
| Limbs, skeleton | Mixed results | Increased limb, spinal, and rib defects | ||
| Developmental milestone | Delayed righting reflex and swimming | Delayed righting reflex | ||
| CNS | ||||
| General brain size | Decreased | Decreased brain weight | ||
| Specific brain areas | ||||
| Cerebellum | Fewer neurons | |||
| Hippocampus | Fewer neurons | |||
| Sensory systems | Impaired cliff avoidance | Transient visual disturbance | ||
| Motor systems | Possible transient effects | Hyperactivity, circling behavior | Rare instances | Hyperactivity, impaired rotarod |
| Cognitive functions | ||||
| IQ, BMDI score | Mixed results | |||
| Learning and memory | General impairments | General impairments | ||
| Behavior | ||||
| Mood (depression) | Increased apathy | |||
| Attention deficits | ||||
| Autistic-like behavior | ||||
| Schizophrenia-like | ||||
| Anxiety | Impaired cliff avoidance | Increased anxiety | Possible hyperactivity in open field | |
Somatic, cognitive and behavioral effects are shown for prenatal exposure (left) and early postnatal exposure (right). The table indicates common findings, and where variability is noted, it may be due to differences in the study parameters/methods, doses, or times of exposure. References are provided in the text.
Abbreviation: BMDI, Bayley Mental Developmental Index.