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Teratophobia Research Paper

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Teratophobia is an excessive fear of giving birth to a malformed child; while psychopharmacoteratophobia (Psychofarmakoteratofobi) is the trepidation of prescribing psychotropic medicine to a pregnant woman on given indication in anticipation of foetus malformation1,2. The word has Greek origin, and is the combination of four words: psȳkhē (breath, life, soul); pharmakon (drug); teras (monster) and phobos (fear). This phenomena can be traced back to the thalidomide tragedy, that first launched in the late 1950s as a sedative for treatment of nausea in pregnant women. Use of this medication caused phacomalia in about ten thousand newborn and was banned in 1961 in most part of the world3.

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