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Prenatal exposure to anxiolytics and hypnotics and language competence at 3 years of age

  • Pharmacodynamics
  • Published:
European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the study was to examine if there was an association between use of anxiolytics and hypnotics in pregnancy and language competence in the offspring at age 3 years.

Methods

The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is a prospective pregnancy cohort where the mothers were asked to report on their medication use at pregnancy week 17–18, 30, and at 6 months postpartum. A woman was defined as a user of anxiolytics and hypnotics during pregnancy if she had reported use of benzodiazepines or benzodiazepine-related drugs during pregnancy. Children’s language competence was measured at age three by maternal report on a validated language grammar scale. We used ordinal logistic regression with estimated standard errors allowing for clustering of multiple pregnancies.

Results

Forty-five thousand and two hundred sixty-six women with 51,748 pregnancies were included in the study. The women reported use of anxiolytics and/or hypnotics in 395 pregnancies (0.8 %). The odds ratios of being in a group with lower language competence were 1.2 (0.9–1.5) and 1.7 (1.0–2.8) for short-term and long-term anxiolytics and hypnotics use, respectively. When adjusting for SSRI use during pregnancy, the odds ratios were 1.1 (0.83–1.41) and 1.4 (0.84–2.33), respectively. Children whose mothers took no anxiolytics and hypnotics during or before pregnancy were reference group.

Conclusion

The results refute any strong association between prenatal use of anxiolytics and hypnotics and lower language competence in the offspring at age 3 years.

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Acknowledgments

The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Research, NIH/NIEHS (contract no. N01-ES-75558), NIH/NINDS (grant no.1 UO1 NS 047537-01, and grant no.2 UO1 NS 047537-06A1). We are grateful to all the participating families in Norway who take part in this ongoing cohort study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author contributions

Authors Odsbu, Skurtveit, Selmer, Roth, and Handal were responsible for the study conception and design, and Skurtveit and Handal did the data acquisition. The analysis and interpretation of data were done by Odsbu, Skurtveit, Selmer, Hernandez-Diaz, and Handal. Drafting of the manuscript was done by Odsbu, Skurtveit, Selmer, and Handal, while Roth and Hernandez-Diaz did the critical revision.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, P.O.Box 4404, Nydalen, Oslo, Norway

    Ingvild Odsbu, Svetlana Skurtveit, Randi Selmer & Marte Handal

  2. Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Svetlana Skurtveit

  3. Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Deaconess Hospital, Oslo, Norway

    Christine Roth

  4. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Sonia Hernandez-Diaz

Authors
  1. Ingvild Odsbu
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  2. Svetlana Skurtveit
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  3. Randi Selmer
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  4. Christine Roth
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  5. Sonia Hernandez-Diaz
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  6. Marte Handal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ingvild Odsbu.

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Flow chart of study participants (PPTX 73 kb)

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Odsbu, I., Skurtveit, S., Selmer, R. et al. Prenatal exposure to anxiolytics and hypnotics and language competence at 3 years of age. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 71, 283–291 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-014-1797-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-014-1797-4

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