PRENATAL AND PERINATAL ANTECEDENTS OF FEBRILE CONVULSIONS AND AFEBRILE SEIZURES - DATA FROM A NATIONAL COHORT STUDY

The assumption is often made that brain damage during the perinatal pe riod is likely to result in neurological abnormalities such as epileps y and cerebral palsy. However, there has been accumulating evidence th at cerebral palsy is rarely, if ever, a result of intrapartum events, but few studies of other neurological abnormalities have been undertak en. We analysed data on 16163 children from the 1970 British national cohort study and followed to age 10, focusing on the 378 who developed febrile convulsions (FCs) and 63 children with idiopathic afebrile se izures (IAS). Children with IAS were significantly more likely not to have been breast fed (P < 0.001), and this was independent of features such as birthweight and maternal disorder. A similar finding was appa rent for FCs (P < 0.05). Although children with low birthweight were a t increased risk of both conditions, there was no association with mat ernal smoking in pregnancy. No associations were found between indicat ions of fetal distress during labour and later febrile convulsions or afebrile seizures. There was no evidence that intervention during labo ur would have improved these outcomes. However, associations were foun d with abnormalities earlier in pregnancy, suggesting a prenatal rathe r than an intrapartum aetiology.