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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on December 8, 2008
American Journal of Epidemiology 2009 169(3):313-322; doi:10.1093/aje/kwn334
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American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2008. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Binge Drinking During Pregnancy and Risk of Seizures in Childhood: A Study Based on the Danish National Birth Cohort

Yuelian Sun, Katrine Strandberg-Larsen, Mogens Vestergaard, Jakob Christensen, Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen, Morten Grønbæk and Jørn Olsen

Correspondence to Dr. Yuelian Sun, Department of Epidemiology, University of Aarhus, Vennelyst Boulevard 6, Building 1260, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark (e-mail: ys{at}soci.au.dk).

Received for publication June 23, 2008. Accepted for publication September 18, 2008.

Seizures are often found in children with fetal alcohol syndrome, but it is not known whether binge drinking during pregnancy by nonalcoholic women is associated with an increased risk of seizure disorders in children. The authors conducted a population-based cohort study of 80,526 liveborn singletons in the Danish National Birth Cohort (1996–2002). Information on maternal binge drinking (intake of ≥5 drinks on a single occasion) was collected in 2 computer-assisted telephone interviews during pregnancy. Children were followed for up to 8 years. Information on neonatal seizures, epilepsy, and febrile seizures was retrieved from the Danish National Hospital Register. Results showed that exposure to binge drinking episodes during pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of seizure disorders in children, except for those exposed at 11–16 gestational weeks. These children had a 3.15-fold increased risk of neonatal seizures (95% confidence interval: 1.37, 7.25) and a 1.81-fold increased risk of epilepsy (95% confidence interval: 1.13, 2.90). These findings suggest that maternal binge drinking during a specific time period of pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of specific seizure disorders in the offspring. The results are exploratory, however, and need to be replicated.

cohort studies; epilepsy; fetal alcohol syndrome; infant, newborn; prenatal exposure delayed effects; seizures, febrile

Abbreviations: ICD-10, International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision


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