Therapeutic drug monitoring during pregnancy—advantages and disadvantages
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Anticipates falling concentrations and increases treatment pre-emptively. | Increases drug load even in patients with well-controlled epilepsy. |
| Better seizure control. | Increases cost and inconvenience of pregnancy care. |
| Reduced risks of maternal harm. | Maintains relatively higher degree of fetal exposure to antiseizure medications. |
| Reduced risks to fetus from seizures. | Unpredictability of pregnancy-related pharmacokinetic change means monitoring may not pick up changes in level. |
| Delay in receiving results of testing (up to 6 weeks in some situations) means monitoring may not pick up changes in serum concentration. |