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Neuropsychiatric events have been reported in children receiving oseltamivir for influenza, but are these events caused by the antiviral or by the infection itself? To find out, investigators retrospectively reviewed data from 700,000 children aged 7 to 14 years who were enrolled in Tennessee Medicaid between mid-2016 and mid-2020.
Roughly 1200 neuropsychiatric hospitalizations occurred during the study (70% neurologic; 30% psychiatric).
The risk of such hospitalization was 10 times higher in children with untreated influenza than in those without influenza — but oseltamivir treatment cut that risk by half.
The protective effect of oseltamivir was stronger for neurologic complications than for psychiatric ones.
No increased ri…