Autism Linked to Antidepressants During Pregnancy

“Our study has established that taking antidepressants during the second or third trimester of pregnancy nearly doubles the risk that the child will be diagnosed with autism by age seven, especially if the mother takes selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, often known by its acronym SSRIs”, said lead author Anick Berard, an expert on pharmaceutical safety during pregnancy at the University of Montreal.

After adjustment for all potential confounders such as genetics and maternal age, the use of antidepressants during the second or third trimester was associated with an 87 percent increased of autism, while no association was observed between the use of antidepressants during the first trimester or the year before pregnancy and the risk of autism.

In their study, Dr. Bérard and her colleagues acknowledge that the association between using antidepressants during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder in children is “still controversial”.

But more importantly, she says women who are depressed need to plan their pregnancies and inform themselves of the possible risks of the medications they are taking.

“They could go through withdrawal symptoms that could be a higher risk than continuing on their medicine”.

However he said it remained unclear whether the increased risk of autism stemmed from the medication, or the disorders for which it was prescribed. Children with the disorder usually display social challenges and communication difficulties.

New research, published today in JAMA Pediatrics, just unearthed one of them: antidepressant use during pregnancy.

Berard’s team studied more than 145,000 children born in Quebec between 1998 and 2009. From the sample, 4,700 babies, or 3 percent of the total group, took some type of antidepressant during pregnancy.

Researchers at the University of Montreal have made a stunning discovery: Taking certain kinds of antidepressants in the later stages of pregnancy can increase the child’s risk of autism by as much as 87%. Antidepressants chemically treat depression, a mental health problem the World Health Organization predicts will be the world’s second most common cause of death by 2020.

“We have to be vigilant even if the risk is small”, Berard says. That makes sense, says Berard, because while anatomical development of organs occurs early during gestation, brain development, which could affect autism risk, starts later.

There were 32 infants exposed to antidepressants during the second and third trimester diagnosed with autism and 40 infants exposed during the first trimester diagnosed with autism, according to the results. It also compared mothers who stopped taking antidepressants during the first trimester with mothers who continued taking the medications.

“Research shows that some of the genes that seem to carry the risk for depression are shared as risk factors for autism”.

And in the ongoing search for environmental contributions to the risk of ASD, gestational exposures are increasing as an area of focus, said King, who was not involved in the research. “It is unlikely that there will be a straight line from such exposures that leads unwaveringly to ASD, and future studies should expand the neurodevelopmental outcomes examined”. The databank recorded several categories of information, including the mother’s age at birth, her history of depression and use of antidepressants, the child’s family history of autism, the family’s socio-economic status, and other factors.

About 10% of pregnant women take antidepressants, and most start before they become pregnant.

“Untreated depression can have serious impact on both the pregnant mom-to-be and the unborn infant”, he said.

Given that pregnancy is no picnic for anyone, let alone a woman dealing with depression, here’s hoping that medical science can develop drugs that can address depression without harming the developing infant.