The effect of diazepam and promethazine treatment during pregnancy on the somatic development of human offspring.

The postnatal longitudinal somatic, neurological, mental, and behavioral developments were studied in children at birth, 8, 15, and 24 months of life, whose mothers were treated during pregnancy with clinical doses of diazepam (n = 126) and promethazine (n = 127) and whose mothers were unexposed. The latter group was differentiated in negative (n = 256) and positive (n = 102) control children. The positive control group involved mothers who had pregnancy complications similar to those of mothers in the drug groups but who were not treated with CNS-active drugs during pregnancy. It is very difficult to recruit persons for the study and control groups who are appropriate for comparative evaluation. Only firstborns and the so-called "normal" newborn infants were studied; children with low birth weight, major abnormalities, severe neonatal diseases, etc., were excluded. In this article the study design, study materials, and somatic (weight, length, head circumference) development are described. At birth, children had a lower weight in the diazepam group, but it was not noted at the eighth month of postnatal life.