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Journal ArticleDOI

Neurodevelopment of Children Exposed in Utero to Antidepressant Drugs

TLDR
In utero exposure to either tricyclic antidepressant drugs or fluoxetine does not affect global IQ, language development, or behavioral development in preschool children.
Abstract
Background Many women of reproductive age have depression, necessitating therapy with either a tricyclic antidepressant drug or a drug, such as fluoxetine, that inhibits the reuptake of serotonin. Whether these drugs affect fetal neurodevelopment is not known. Methods We studied the children of 80 mothers who had received a tricyclic antidepressant drug during pregnancy, 55 children whose mothers had received fluoxetine during pregnancy, and 84 children whose mothers had not been exposed during pregnancy to any agent known to affect the fetus adversely. The children's global IQ and language development were assessed between 16 and 86 months of postnatal age by age-appropriate Bayley Scales of Infant Development or the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (for IQ) and the Reynell Developmental Language Scales. Results The mean (±SD) global IQ scores were 118±17 in the children of mothers who received a tricyclic antidepressant drug, 117±17 in those whose mothers received fluoxetine, and 115±14 in those ...

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Journal ArticleDOI

Risk for psychopathology in the children of depressed mothers: a developmental model for understanding mechanisms of transmission.

TL;DR: A developmentally sensitive, integrative model for understanding children's risk in relation to maternal depression is proposed and three factors that might moderate this risk are considered.
Journal ArticleDOI

Early-Life Blockade of the 5-HT Transporter Alters Emotional Behavior in Adult Mice

TL;DR: A critical role of serotonin in the maturation of brain systems that modulate emotional function in the adult is indicated and a developmental mechanism to explain how low-expressing 5-HTT promoter alleles increase vulnerability to psychiatric disorders is suggested.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

The CES-D Scale: A Self-Report Depression Scale for Research in the General Population

TL;DR: The CES-D scale as discussed by the authors is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population, which has been used in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Global Assessment Scale: A procedure for measuring overall severity of psychiatric disturbance.

TL;DR: The relative simplicity, reliability, and validity of the GAS suggests that it would be useful in a wide variety of clinical and research settings.
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