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Maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy and neonatal hypoglycemia: prospective cohort study

Journal of Perinatology volume 40, pages 1025–1030 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate associations between maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy and hypoglycemia in term neonates.

Study design

We conducted a prospective comparative cohort study of neonates of ≥37 weeks’ gestation. Neonates whose mothers used antidepressants during pregnancy were compared with randomly selected cohort of neonates whose mothers did not use antidepressants. Blood glucose was measured at 24 ± 2 h after birth. Hypoglycemia was defined as blood glucose level <2.6 mmol/L. We needed 60 patients in each group to reject the null hypothesis.

Results

Mean gestational ages were 39 vs. 40 weeks (p < 0.01) and birthweights were 3250 vs. 3360 g (p = 0.08) for antidepressant-exposed vs. -unexposed neonates. There were no significant differences between groups in odds of hypoglycemia (4/59: exposed vs. 2/61: unexposed; adjusted relative risk 1.73; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.37–8.92) or mean blood glucose levels.

Conclusions

Maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy was not associated with neonatal hypoglycemia at 24 h of age.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Heather McDonald-Kinkaid, PhD, of the Maternal-infant Care Research Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for editorial support in preparing this manuscript.

Funding

No direct funding was received for this project. PSS holds an Applied Research Chair in Reproductive and Child Health Services and Policy Research from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (APR-126340).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai Hospital and University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Jyotsna Shah, Karla Sarmiento, Jie Yang & Prakesh S. Shah

Authors
  1. Jyotsna Shah
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  2. Karla Sarmiento
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  4. Prakesh S. Shah
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Contributions

JS conceptualized and designed the study and data collection instruments; collected data; and drafted, reviewed, and revised the manuscript. KS reviewed the initial study proposal and research ethics application, contributed to patient recruitment, and reviewed and revised the manuscript. JY contributed to the interpretation of data and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript. PSS conceived the study design, coordinated and supervised the data collection, and critically reviewed the manuscript for important intellectual content. As corresponding author, JS confirms that she has had full access to the data in the study and final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jyotsna Shah.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Shah, J., Sarmiento, K., Yang, J. et al. Maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy and neonatal hypoglycemia: prospective cohort study. J Perinatol 40, 1025–1030 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-020-0644-y

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