Parents, pay attention: FDA issues warning over anesthesia use in kids under 3, pregnant women

Repeated use of general anesthetic and sedation drugs in toddlers and pregnant women may tamper with a child’s developing brain, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning.

The American federal agency is now forcing drug makers to add warning labels to anesthetic and sedation drugs. No specific option is safer than any other, it said.

“Parents and caregivers are often concerned when their young child requires a medical procedure for which anesthesia or sedation drugs are necessary. Understandably, there are many questions, including whether the drugs are safe for their child. Pregnant women who must undergo medical procedures that require anesthesia or sedation drugs have similar concerns,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Parents and caregivers are often concerned when their young child requires a medical procedure for which anesthesia or sedation drugs are necessary. Understandably, there are many questions, including whether the drugs are safe for their child. Pregnant women who must undergo medical procedures that require anesthesia or sedation drugs have similar concerns," Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a <a href="http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm533346.htm">statement</a>.

“To better inform the public of the risks, we are requiring warnings to be added to the labels of these drugs. We recognize that in many cases these exposures may be medically necessary and these new data regarding the potential harms must be carefully weighed,” she said.

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The FDA said its message is for doctors and parents of kids under three, and pregnant women in their third trimester. “Repeated or lengthy” use of these drugs could be hurting kids’ growing brains, they warned.

In previous studies in young animals, if these drugs were used for longer than three hours, “long-term cognitive deficits” were recorded.

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The concern is kids include learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and behavioural problems, the FDA warned.

It’s hard to tell if it’s the drugs, the surgery, underlying conditions or other factors at play when explaining the link.

More studies need to be done, the FDA conceded but for now it offered a list of the drugs that’ll require warnings moving forward. See the full list, including generic and brand names, here.

carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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