Use of antipsychotics during pregnancy does not appear to have a significant developmental impact on babies, suggests a new population-based study.

An analysis of over 300,000 mother-child pairs revealed that children of mothers who were taking an antipsychotic during pregnancy had no heightened risk for developing attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; weighted HR 1.16) or autism spectrum disorder (wHR 1.06), or of being born small for gestational age (wOR 1.36), reported researchers in JAMA Internal Medicine. There was a 40% higher risk for preterm birth in comparison with nonexposed individuals (weighted OR 1.40); however, the finding was not supported in further analyses. Additionally, when researchers compared gestationally exposed children with those whose mothers had exposure before pregnancy, there appeared to be no increased risk for any of the outcomes - ADHD: wHR 0.99, autism spectrum disorder: wHR 1.10, preterm birth: wOR 0.93, and small for gestational age: wOR 1.21… (Medpage Today)