Effect of psychotropic drugs on fetal behavior in the third trimester of pregnancy
-
Toshiyuki Hata
,
Kenji Kanenishi
Abstract
Aim:
To assess the effect of psychotropic drugs on fetal behavior using four-dimensional (4D) ultrasound in the third trimester of pregnancy.
Methods:
Fetal behavior was assessed using Kurjak’s antenatal neurodevelopmental test (KANET) using 4D ultrasound between 28 and 36 weeks of gestation. Thirty healthy (control group) and 10 psychotropic-drug-administered pregnant (case group) women were studied. The total value of the KANET score and values of each parameter (eight parameters) were compared between the two groups.
Results:
The total KANET score was normal (except for one fetus in the case group: total score of 9) in both groups, and there was no significant difference in the total KANET score. When individual KANET parameters were compared, no significant differences were noted in any of the eight parameters.
Conclusion:
Our results showed that there is no difference in fetal behavior between fetuses of normal pregnant women and those of psychotropic-drug-administered pregnant women in the third trimester of pregnancy. These results suggest that psychotropic drugs may not affect fetal behavioral development in utero. However, the data and their interpretation in the present study should be taken with some degree of caution because of the small number of subjects studied. Further studies involving a larger sample size are needed to assess the effect of psychotropic drugs on fetal neurobehavior during pregnancy.
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: None declared.
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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©2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Ultrasound Doppler waveform assessment: the story continues
- Review
- Association between increased antenatal vaginal pH and preterm birth rate: a systematic review
- Mini Review
- Update on uterine tachysystole
- Research Articles – Obstetrics
- First trimester prediction of gestational diabetes mellitus using plasma biomarkers: a case-control study
- Emergency peripartal hysterectomy – a single-center analysis of the last 13 years at a tertiary perinatal care unit
- Efficacy and safety of misoprostol vaginal insert vs. oral misoprostol for induction of labor
- Vitamin A and β-carotene in pregnant and breastfeeding post-bariatric women in an urban population
- Effect of dual tocolysis with fenoterol and atosiban in human myometrium
- Antecedents of red cell transfusion in a large contemporary obstetric cohort
- Effect of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids supplementation in healthy mothers on DHA and EPA profiles in maternal and umbilical blood: a randomized controlled trial
- Research Articles – Fetus
- Effect of psychotropic drugs on fetal behavior in the third trimester of pregnancy
- Prognostic value of the aortic isthmus Doppler assessment on late onset fetal growth restriction
- Doppler evaluation of the fetal pulmonary artery pressure
- Mechanisms of death in structurally normal stillbirths
- The diagnostic value of a detailed first trimester anomaly scan in fetuses with increased nuchal translucency thickness
- Research Articles – Newborn
- Small for gestational age and extremely low birth weight infant outcomes
- Does heart rate variability improve prediction of failed extubation in preterm infants?
