US Pharm. 2015;40(5):7.
Oslo, Norway—Three-year-old children who were exposed to antidepressants in utero demonstrate increased anxiety symptoms compared with their unexposed siblings, according to a study of more than 30,000 siblings from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Participating mothers were followed for several years, with potentially more than one pregnancy during the study period. The effect of prenatal antidepressant exposure was specific to anxiety and was not associated with emotional reactivity, attention problems, sleep problems, or aggression in the siblings. This study is important because it compared children born to the same mother who had different exposure to antidepressants and because it took into account the fact that depression and emotional problems have a genetic component.
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