Table 2.
Effects of prenatal or early life exposure to phenobarbital in children and laboratory animals.
| Phenobarbital | Effects on offspring of maternal AED use |
Effects on offspring of early postnatal use |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human | Rodent | Human | Rodent | |
| Somatic | ||||
| General body size | Mixed results | Decreased (*) | ||
| Facial features | Mixed results—cleft palate | |||
| Limbs, skeleton | ||||
| Developmental milestones | Delays on BMDI (*) | Impaired righting reflexes | ||
| CNS | ||||
| General brain size | Decreased head circumference | Decreased weight | Decreased weight | |
| Specific brain areas | ||||
| Cerebellum | Decreased cell number | Decreased cell number/apoptosis; mismigration |
||
| Hippocampus | Decreased cell number | Decreased cell number/apoptosis; mismigration |
||
| Sensory systems | ||||
| Motor systems | Delayed neurological development |
Decreased muscle, delayed swimming |
Hyperactivity/reduced reaction times |
Hyperactivity |
| Cognitive functions | ||||
| IQ, BMDI score | Decreased (*) | Decreased | ||
| Learning and memory | Decreased (*) | General impairments | Transient, variable | General impairments |
| Behavior | ||||
| Mood (depression) | Fussiness, depression, irritability |
|||
| Attention deficits | Working memory impairments | Impaired concentration | Working memory impairments and attention |
|
| Autistic-like behavior | Decreased play behavior | |||
| Schizophrenia-like | Impaired prepulse inhibition | |||
| Anxiety | Increased (*) | |||
Somatic, cognitive and behavioral effects are shown for prenatal exposure (left) and early postnatal exposure (right). The table indicates common findings, and where variability is noted, it may be due to differences in the study parameters/methods, doses, or times of exposure.
*
indicates presence of conflicting reports in the literature. References are provided in the text.
Abbreviations: BMDI, Bayley Mental Developmental Index.