SSRIs in Pregnancy Tied to Autism [View All]

[Jim__]

There is a link at the end of this article to the original paper in the Archives of General Psychiatry, but to read the full paper requires a login. The first 4 paragraphs from the article:

Prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) appears to be associated with increased chances of developing an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), although such an exposure is unlikely to explain many cases of autism, a case-control study showed.

Children born to mothers who received a prescription for any antidepressant in the year before delivery were twice as likely to have an ASD (6.7% versus 3.3%; OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.6), according to Lisa Croen, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland, and colleagues.

But the relationship was significant only when an SSRI was one of the antidepressants taken, the researchers reported online in Archives of General Psychiatry.

Adjusting for maternal history of depression and other mental health disorders did not affect the finding.


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