An international group of researchers recently published a study linking pregnant women who take the antidepressant Prozac or Paxil to heart defects in their unborn children. The study, a collaboration from scientists from Israel, Italy and Germany, was published in the November issue of The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
The study found that women who take Prozac during pregnancy are more than four times as likely to give birth to a child with heart defects; for Paxil, the incidence of birth defects was more than three times as likely.
The risk of fetal heart defects is raised again if the mother also smoked while taking the antidepressants. The highest risk group was women taking Prozac while smoking more than ten cigarettes a day, yielding 5.4 times as many children with heart problems.
Researchers recommend that pregnant smokers who are on one of these two drugs stop smoking. They also urge that patients talk to their doctor before deciding to cease medication.
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When Marie Hiagler had her first child, Brianna, she was born just like any normal child. Soon after her birth, however, her mother found that something was not so normal–Brianna spit up whatever she drank. She also threw up whatever she managed to swallow.
Her confused doctors said the child suffered from terrible reflux. Brianna failed to progress like other infants her age; she never was able to crawl of even roll over. After Brianna turned 1, a doctor found calcification in her brain area and diagnosed her with cerebral palsy, but the child didn’t gain weight and had a much smaller head than children with cerebral palsy. Eventually Brianna was diagnosed with an aggressive form of a rare premature aging disease called Cockayne Syndrome.
Cockayne syndrome affects no more than an estimated one in 100,000 babies, and those with the disease may live into their 30s. Because of the rarity of the disease, it is difficult for doctors to diagnose, especially if it is mild.
"Nobody ever sees them enough to be good at diagnosing," says Dr. Will Sorey, an associate professor of pediatrics at UMC. The disease is caused by a defect in the body’s ability to repair damaged DNA. "We don’t think about our bodies constantly falling apart. Every cell except the central nervous system is constantly repairing itself. With Cockayne Syndrome, that repair does not occur, so those who have it appear decades older."
While a test can now determine whether someone has the faulty gene on chromosome 4, experts say Cockayne is such a rare disease that treatment options are not on the horizon.
The University of California Children’s Hospital in San Francisco has opened a new department that focuses on the infant brain.
It is the first facility of its kind in the United States. The department brings together specialized treatment for infants who show signs of brain damage at birth – and are at-risk for developing cerebral palsy, mental retardation and other cognitive disorders – with clinical research.
The new Neuro-Intensive Care Nursery (NICN) is a state-of-the-art newborn care unit designed to host clinical trials and bring the latest cutting-edge treatments to patients.
Newborn brain damage is the leading cause of mental retardation, developmental delay and cerebral palsy in the U.S., according to Rowitch. Among all babies born very prematurely, five to 15 percent go on to develop cerebral palsy, and 25 to 50 percent develop cognitive disorders or a learning disability. The cost of treating cerebral palsy alone exceeds $35 billion annually, according to the March of Dimes Foundation.
The opening of the NICN comes at an important time, as the last few decades have seen an increase in the number of infants who show signs of brain damage shortly after birth. This increase is primarily due to a corresponding increase in the survival rate of extremely premature infants – known to be much more susceptible to brain damage than full-term infants.
Although advanced neonatal care has enabled doctors to keep preterm infants alive, there is currently a lack of therapies that prevent or diminish brain damage in these cases. There is hope that the work done at the NICN will play an instrumental role in the development of new therapies for premature babies at high risk for brain damage.