Journal article
Prenatal Valproate Exposure and Risk of Autism Spectrum Dsorders and Childhood Autism
JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association, Vol.309(16), p1696
24 Apr 2013
Abstract
Christensen et al determine whether prenatal exposure to valproate is associated with an increased risk of autism in offspring. Of 655,615 children born from 1996 through 2006, 5437 were identified with autism spectrum disorder, including 2067 with childhood autism. The mean age of the children at end of follow-up was 8.84 years. The estimated absolute risk after 14 years of follow-up was 1.53% for autism spectrum disorder and 0.48% for childhood autism. Overall, the 508 children exposed to valproate had an absolute risk of 4.42% for autism spectrum disorder and an absolute risk of 2.50% for childhood autism. When restricting the cohort to the 6584 children born to women with epilepsy, the absolute risk of autism spectrum disorder among 432 children exposed to valproate was 4.15%, and the absolute risk of childhood autism was 2.95% vs 2.44% for autism spectrum disorder and 1.02% for childhood autism among 6152 children not exposed to valproate. Maternal use of valproate during pregnancy was associated with a significantly increased risk of autism spectrum disorder and childhood autism in the offspring, even after adjusting for maternal epilepsy. For women of child-bearing potential who use antiepileptic medications, these findings must be balanced against the treatment benefits for women who require valproate for epilepsy control.
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Details
- Title
- Prenatal Valproate Exposure and Risk of Autism Spectrum Dsorders and Childhood Autism
- Creators
- Jakob ChristensenTherese GrønborgMerete SørensenDiana SchendelErik ParnerLars PedersenMogens Vestergaard
- Publication Details
- JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association, Vol.309(16), p1696
- Publisher
- American Medical Association
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- A.J. Drexel Autism Institute
- Identifiers
- 991021463698504721