Prenatal antidepressants and childhood anxiety

Research from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), the University of Oslo and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada has indicated a link between the use of antidepressants in pregnancy and childhood anxiety in the children of these pregnancies.  In studying this subject the researchers acknowledged that it can be very hard to rule out links due to genetic or environmental risk factors.  They therefore designed this study to compare across sibling groups (where the mother used antidepressants in one pregnancy but not another) in order to control for these other factors.

Results indicated that the siblings who had exposure to antidepressants were more likely to exhibit signs of anxiety at age 3, however exposure was not associated with other behavioural concerns which were measured such as sleep problems, attention problems or aggression.  More research into this area is needed to investigate this link further and to account for other factors not included in this study.

Lead author of the study Ragnhild Eek Brandlistuen said: “These findings are in line with previous research, but to my knowledge this is the first study that has taken into account that depression and emotional problems have a genetic component”.

Read the research abstract here

An RCM report on it can be found here