Dr. John Murphy:

I think that would have to be set up. The word "register" brings to mind continuity. A register is not simply a once-off thing that someone establishes today with the relevant children as things stand. The register would have to be there in future to capture any future cases that might arise. That is a clear point about registers. They are not much use unless there is a commitment to them in future. I suspect we would need someone to co-ordinate it nationally. In my hospital, there are 40 or 50 women who have epilepsy and who are attending the antenatal clinic. I speak to the obstetricians who work with me. They tell me that, at the moment, few or none of the patients are on Epilim. That is mirrored throughout the country. Let us assume that approximately 400 women throughout the country may have epilepsy when going through antenatal clinics per year. It is important that they are surveyed from now on to find out whether any of them are on Epilim for an reason, whether from a psychiatric viewpoint or an epilepsy viewpoint. They are the ideal group that should go into the registry. We may have two processes in parallel. One could look at any pregnancies now and in future. Another stream of work could examine what has happened to the pregnancies in cases where mothers had been on Epilim, what happened to their children and whether they have any physical disability or learning disability.