Use of Selective Serotonin-Reuptake Inhibitors in Pregnancy and the Risk of Birth Defects
Information regarding the safety of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in human pregnancy is sparse. Concern has been raised about the risk of congenital heart defects associated with the use of SSRIs in pregnancy.
Methods We obtained data on 9622 case infants with major birth defects and 4092 control infants born from 1997 through 2002 from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Case infants were ascertained through birth-defects surveillance systems in eight U.S. states; controls were selected randomly from the same geographic areas. Mothers completed a standardized telephone interview regarding exposure to potential risk factors, including medications, before and during pregnancy. Exposure to SSRIs was defined as treatment with any SSRI from 1 month before to 3 months after conception. Birth defects were assigned to 26 categories and subcategories.
Cats may be trouble for any allergy sufferer
People with allergies may have some constriction in their airways when they’re around a cat, even if they’re not specifically allergic to cats, a study published Monday suggests.
Researchers found that people with a range of allergies—to grass, mold or dust—were more prone to airway constriction if their homes were heavy with cat dander. This was true even when blood tests showed the allergy sufferers were not specifically sensitized to cats.
Genetic mutations raise heart rhythm problem risk
Two genetic mutations have been identified that increase the risk of a common heart rhythm problem linked to stroke, according to researchers who have developed a test to identify people who have them.
Writing on Sunday in the journal Nature, scientists scanned the genes of thousands of people from Iceland, Sweden, the United States and Hong Kong to find these two common mutations tied to much higher risk for atrial fibrillation.
Doctors offer fertility hope to cancer children
Doctors have extracted, matured and frozen eggs from girls as young as five in a move that may allow children with cancer to become parents when they grow up, scientists said on Sunday.
Childhood cancers usually result in cure rates of between 70 and 90 percent but the aggressive chemotherapy which is often needed can render children sterile.
Breastfeeding Not Associated with Reduced Risk of Adult Obesity
An independent study conducted by Harvard Medical School researchers, published in the July edition of the International Journal of Obesity, finds that women who were breastfed did not have lower incidence of overweight or obesity in adulthood when compared to women who were not breastfed.
Additionally, the study finds that although exclusive breastfeeding (for at least six months) is associated with leaner body shape at five years, this association does not persist into adolescence or adulthood. The study is based on data collected from 35,526 women participating in the Nurse’s Health Study II (NHS), is the largest to date examining breastfeeding and its influence on adult weight status.
