Taking some anti-seizure medications during pregnancy could be linked to ADHD, anxiety in children

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-04-18 01:00

Australia; International; NSW

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Children born to mothers who are taking some anti-seizure medications for epilepsy could be at higher risk of some psychiatric conditions, according to international and Australian researchers. Previous research has found a link between antiseizure medication during pregnancy and problems with brain development in babies, so the team looked at psychiatric diagnoses for babies born across much of Scandinavia between 1996 and 2017. They say while exposure to medications lamotrigine, carbamazepine, and oxcarbazepine were not associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders, but topiramate was associated with ADHD and levetiracetam was associated with anxiety and ADHD.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Neurology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of New South Wales

Funder: This work was funded by grants 83796 (Drs Gissler, Leinonen, Zoega, and Furu) and 83539 (Drs Bjørk, Gissler, Leinonen, Tomson, and Christensen) from the NordForsk Nordic Program on Health andWelfare and grant 1133-00026B from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (Dr Dreier).

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