Taking antidepressants while pregnant linked to autism risk, but many scientists doubtful

Women who take certain common antidepressants while pregnant may face nearly twice the risk of having a child with autism, a study said on Monday. However, many other studies have not found any such links.

The group where the mothers took antidepressants during the second and third trimester included 2,532 babies who were under high risk, and 1.2 percent of them were found to develop autism later. There were 4,724 infants exposed to antidepressants while their mother was pregnant; about 89 percent were exposed during the first trimester and 54 percent during the second or third trimester.

When researchers compared the rates of autism for children born from women with a history of depression who did not take SSRIs to those who did, they found that the babies of SSRI-users were 75 percent more likely to be diagnosed. “Amongst all the children in the study, we then identified which children had been diagnosed with a form of autism by looking at hospital records indicating diagnosed childhood autism, atypical autism, Asperger’s syndrome, or a pervasive developmental disorder”.

Researchers said their findings are important because as many as 10 per cent of pregnant women are now being treated with antidepressants. Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors during the second and/or third trimester was associated with an even greater increase in risk of ASD (22 exposed infants; aHR, 2.17; 95 percent CI, 1.20 to 3.93).

“It is biologically plausible that anti-depressants are causing autism if used at the time of brain development in the womb, as serotonin is involved in numerous pre- and postnatal developmental processes, including cell division, the migration of neurons, cell differentiation and synaptogenesis – the creation of links between brain cells”, she added.

Here, it must be mentioned that previous studies came up with inconsistent evidence linking the use of antidepressants during pregnancy with autism in kids. Many epidemiologists and psychiatrists say the study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, is flawed and will cause unnecessary panic.