Neurological disease and epilepsy

The majority of neurological diseases encountered in pregnant women are pre-existing conditions. The impact of such chronic diseases, e.g. epilepsy, may include an increase in maternal morbidity, an increase in fetal or neonatal morbidity and mortality and possibly more long-term consequences to the developing child. These consequences may reflect an effect of the disease itself or an effect of treatment. Some neurological conditions occur more frequently in pregnant women, e.g. compression mononeuro-pathies while others are unique to pregnancy, e.g. eclampsia. The following review discusses the most common neurological diseases with brief mention of rare but important disorders that may occur during pregnancy or the puerperium.