Early Anesthesia Linked to Language Problems

Increasingly, research finds that exposure to anesthesia in early childhood may have long-term effects on kids’ brain development.
One 2011 study linked exposure to anesthesia to learning disabilities, finding that exposed kids had lower scores on standardized tests of reading, writing, math and reasoning, and were more likely to have behavioral issues at school. Another study in 2012 found that children who underwent multiple exposures to anesthesia early on were twice as likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder as teenagers, compared with children with fewer exposures to such drugs.