Taking Antidepressants While Pregnant Linked to Risk of Autism in Child

Mothers who take antidepressants while pregnant may be exposing their child to a greater risk of developing autism or developmental delay, especially among baby boys, according to a recent study.

The study, published in Pediatrics, examined the link between an elevated risk of autism in newborns and the use of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) by pregnant women.

According to WebMD common SSRI drugs include the antidepressant drugs Celexa, Lexapro, Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft -- all of which are frequently prescribed to women suffering from antepartum depression or depression before and while pregnant.

Unfortunately, SSRIs may negatively impact the development of a child while in the womb despite the good they might do for depressed mothers.

According to the study, in a study of 966 mother-child pairs from the Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) Study -- a long-term case-control study -- mothers who took SSRIs even briefly while pregnant proved more likely to give birth to children who displayed signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) of developmental delay (DD).

Interestingly, the most striking statistic discerned by the researchers was that among autistic children, boys with ASD boasted a significantly higher exposure to prenatal SSRIs compared to females and both sexes who were no exposed to the antidepressants while in the womb.

According to the study results, the association between SSRIs, ASD, and DD was most significant among children who were exposed to antidepressants as early as the first trimester.

Still, it should be noted that this study only established an association, and did not explain a cause-and effect relationship.

A study published earlier this month detailed the findings of researchers arguing that the benefits of keeping severely depressed mothers on medication outweighs the potential risks that the drugs pose to children. The study focused primarily on the risks of antidepressants reaching children after they are born through breast feeding, but encourages that depressed women even stay on their medication while pregnant to help reduce the chances of postpartum depression becoming so severe that it interferes with a mothers ability to feed their child after they give birth.

With this latest study, it is revealed that women suffering from depression and their doctors may have to very carefully consider all of their options when pregnancy is first discovered, maintaining a careful balancing act in an abundance of caution.

The study was published in Pediatrics on April 14.