Pregnant moms take benzos, long term effect on children as teens

[kr59]

I am the step mom to a 16 year old boy. He clearly has issues beyond the diagnosis (by his Dr.) of ADHD. His birth mom (who has passed from an overdose of same meds) took Ativan while pregnant with him. She took MUCH more than recommended even when not pregnant. So, my question is this: has anyone done research to find out the long term effects of this and other drugs on children who were gestated with this drug along with several other meds? By the way the Ativan and some other meds she took weren't all prescribed, especially in the amount that she ingested. This woman had two previous pregnancies, where both newborns were close to death.
I'm positive these meds have got to interrupt brain cell formation during the fetus's development. .

[Paxiled]

Yes, there is lots of research on what meds are safe to take when pregnant and which are not.  Remember the crack baby problem?  Mostly never happened.  You can access this research.  On the other hand, most research forcuses on birth defects, or what you're calling brain cell formation.  And that has lots of research on it.  It's always best not to be on any medication when pregnant, but in any individual case it's often impossible to tell why something happened.  You can't have a do-over to see what would have happened if things had been otherwise.  But what isn't researched as much is what does happen to an infant born on drugs -- any drugs, not just those that affect brain neurotransmitters.  This would be very expensive research to do, as you'd have to follow cohorts for a lifetime and account for all the individual differences that exist in people.  This would be extremely expensive and, since there's no patent at the end of the rainbow when the study ends, only true believer researchers would do such research.  Most research is paid for directly or indirectly in the pursuit of new drugs to market.  So, you'll never know.  Move on or become an activist pushing for more pure research dollars.

[drifter0213]

true we need more research eh