NATION IN BRIEF : MASSACHUSETTS : Seizure Drug Found to Lower Youths’ IQs
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A drug widely used to treat babies who have convulsions during high fevers can at least temporarily lower their IQs and should not be routinely used, researchers have concluded in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The medicine, phenobarbital, is the drug of choice for infants with so-called febrile seizures. The researchers found a small but measurable decline in the IQs of youngsters who took the medicine for two years.
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