Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Medication Use in Pregnancy and Risk of Preterm Birth: A Population‐Based Cohort Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Medication use during pregnancy for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is increasing, but evidence on its safety in pregnancy for foetal health is limited, with little attention to time-related biases in observational research. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between ADHD medication use in early and late pregnancy and the risk of preterm birth. METHODS: This population-based cohort study utilised data from national registers, including records on births, prescription medications, specialist healthcare visits, hospitalisations and educational attainment, to account for relevant potential confounders. We included singleton births delivered between 22 and 44 gestational weeks among pregnant individuals with ADHD medication use in the year before conception from Norway (2009-2020) and Sweden (2007-2019). ADHD medications (amphetamine, dexamphetamine, methylphenidate, atomoxetine, lisdexamfetamine and guanfacine) were assessed during early (conception to 21 gestational weeks) and late pregnancy (22-36 gestational weeks). The main outcome was preterm birth, defined as a live birth before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. Risk ratios (RR) and hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using log-binomial regression and flexible parametric survival modelling to determine the risk of preterm birth in early and late pregnancy, respectively. RESULTS: Among 11,075 pregnancies, early pregnancy ADHD medication use was associated with higher preterm birth risk with ≥ 2 filled prescriptions (aRR 1.29, 95% CI 1.08, 1.53), but not as ≥ 1 prescription (aRR 1.08, 95% CI 0.93, 1.25). Any medication use in late pregnancy increased preterm birth risk (aHR 1.15, 95% CI 0.95, 1.39). For every 30 days of cumulative exposure to ADHD medication, the risk of preterm birth increased in late pregnancy (aHR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02, 1.12), but not in early pregnancy (aHR 1.01, 95% CI 0.97, 1.05). CONCLUSIONS: ADHD medication may modestly increase the risk of preterm birth, especially with atomoxetine early and methylphenidate late in pregnancy, and with longer durations of use.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".