Resuscitated Newborns More Likely to Have Lower IQs, New Research Says

Babies who are not breathing at birth and must be resuscitated are at increased risk of having lower IQs later in life, a new British study has found.

A lack of oxygen being delivered to the brain of a newborn that is not breathing is suspected of causing lasting damage, even in children who show no signs of disability or lower mental functioning in early infancy. In more severe cases of oxygen deprivation, severe brain damage called encephalopathy, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, or other permanent injuries may result.

For years, doctors have believed that infants who were resuscitated at birth but show no symptoms of more severe conditions caused by oxygen deprivation were generally healthy and would grow up without difficulties. However, the new research from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Southmead Hospital in Bristol casts doubt on that long-held belief.

Comparison of Resuscitated Newborns

For the study, researchers examined children who were resuscitated at birth but did not show symptoms of encephalopathy. From that group, 815 children required no further neonatal care, while 58 were treated for encephalopathy. Data from those children were then compared to nearly 11,000 children who had not been resuscitated at birth.

IQ tests were given to all children to assess brain function to the children, with an average age of 8.6 years and a score of less than 80 considered a low IQ.

Link Between Resuscitation at Birth and Low IQ

The results were that children who had been resuscitated after birth but did not have symptoms of encephalopathy were 65 percent more likely to have a low IQ. Children who had to be resuscitated and had symptoms of encephalopathy were more than six times more likely to have a low IQ, the researchers said.

“Infants who needed resuscitation, even if they did not develop encephalopathy in the neonatal period, had a substantially increased risk of a low full-scale IQ score…The data suggest that mild perinatal physiological compromise might be sufficient to cause subtle neuronal or synaptic damage, and thereby affect cognition in childhood and potentially in adulthood,” the study’s authors wrote.

A report on the study is published in the April 21 online edition of The Lancet.

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