Neurological outcomes worsen with gestational HTN, preeclampsia, eclampsia

Gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia are associated with an increased risk for neurological outcomes in the months or years after giving birth, according to a study published online Dec. 23 in JAMA Neurology.

Therese Friis, M.D., from Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues examined whether gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia are associated with new-onset migraine, headache, epilepsy, sleep disorder, or mental fatigue within months to years after giving birth in a register-based cohort study. A total of 659,188 primiparous women with singleton pregnancies between 2005 and 2018 were identified through the Swedish Medical Birth Register; the final study population included 648,385 women.

The researchers found that compared with women with normotensive pregnancies, women with gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia all had an association with an increased risk for a new-onset neurological disorder (adjusted hazard ratios, 1.27, 1.32, and 1.70, respectively). On examination of individual outcomes, the risk for epilepsy was increased more than fivefold for women with eclampsia (adjusted hazard ratio, 5.31).

“Our findings warrant further investigations of neurological complications after gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia,” the authors write. “They also highlight the need for follow-up regarding neurological disorders in women affected by these pregnancy complications.”

One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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