Antidepressant use in pregnancy linked to autism risk in boys: Study

[Jesus Malverde]

Boys with autism were three times more likely to have been exposed to antidepressants known as SSRIs in the womb than typically developing children, according to new research.

The new study also found that boys whose mothers took SSRIs -- drugs including Celexa, Lexapro, Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft -- during pregnancy were also more likely to have developmental delays.

Results of the study were published online April 14 and in the May print issue of Pediatrics.

We found prenatal SSRI exposure was almost three times as likely in boys with autism spectrum disorders relative to typical development, with the greatest risk when exposure is during the first trimester," said study co-author Li-Ching Lee, an associate scientist in the department of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore.

While the study found an association between prenatal use of SSRI antidepressants and autism risk in boys, it did not prove cause-and-effect.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/antidepressant-use-in-pregnancy-linked-to-autism-risk-in-boys/

[knitter4democracy]

1. Sounds like it's time for more research.

There needs to be a bigger study now, one that includes girls as well, and then research into whether this correlation has anything more to it.

[Igel]

2. They do need a bigger study,in all likelihood.

But the finding that boys are at 3 times greater risk entails that they had girls in their sample. That's the easiest contrast: 3 times greater risk than girls (as opposed to adults, infants, cats).

The finding's likely to be robust. There was a small increase in incidence when girls were included, but once they were removed from the stats the effect on boys increased, esp. for those whose mothers used SSRIs in the first trimester. That's probably a bad finding because it suggests autism is a deep-structure kind of problem. It's hard to find remedies for abnormalities in the brain's infrastructure from the first few months.

Lends more credence to the idea that there's something about the X chromosome that's important for brain development, so only having one yields less resiliency. Might be easier to find what protects against autism than what causes autism.

[knitter4democracy]

3. Yes, we need more research in that area.

There's just so much we still don't know about brain development, fetal development, and the impact of changes in the fetal environment on changes in development. Hard to study, though.