Prenatal valproate exposure tied to psychiatric disorders in late childhood
The elevated risk was largely driven by disorders within the neurodevelopmental spectrum, say researchers.
Prenatal exposure to the antiepileptic valproate is associated with an increased risk for later psychiatric disorders among children of mothers with epilepsy, according to a study in JAMA Neurology.
Dr Julie Werenberg Dreier (PhD), from Aarhus University in Denmark, and colleagues examined the association between prenatal exposure to valproate with a spectrum of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence.
The analysis included 38,661 children of mothers with epilepsy born in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden between 1996 and 2017.
The researchers found that 42.6% of children were prenatally exposed to antiseizure medication.
