Psychiatry AdvisorAntidepressant Exposure In Utero Should Prompt Early Screening for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Pregnant women who filled prescriptions for bupropion, citalopram, escitalopram, fluoxetine, or sertraline during pregnancy (antidepressant-exposed cohort) and pregnant women who did not fill an antidepressant prescription within 90 days of the start of their pregnancy through delivery (control group) were the subjects of the study conducted by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the United States.

The main finding concerned the frequency of ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), behavioral disorder, developmental coordination disorder, developmental speech or language disorder, intellectual disability, any NDDs, and specific learning disorders among the children of the women in the study.