Women suffering from clinical depression must first contact their doctor if they ever want to be pregnant. It is because a new study shows that the use of antidepressants during the later stages of pregnancy will increase the chances of giving birth to a child with autism.
A research team, which is headed by Professor Anick Bérard by the University of Montreal, conducts a study on how and if antidepressants can affect and increase the percentage risk of giving birth to a child with autism. The result of the study is then posted by "JAMA Pediatrics" on Dec. 14, 2015.
According to Prof. Bérard, an internationally famous for her work in the field of pharmaceutical safety, there were a lot of varieties when it comes to the probable causes of autism. However, recent studies showed that both genetics and environment can also play a factor.
Prof. Bérard also stated that the study they did was able to come up with the conclusion that taking antidepressants during the last two trimesters of pregnancy doubles the chances of having a child that will later on be diagnosed with autism. The sorts of antidepressants that they're talking about are the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil.
Prof. Bérard and her team studied 145,456 children that are born between 1998 and 2009. Aside from that, the research team also gathered personal information about their family backgrounds as a way of searching for other possible factors that could be the reason for a child to have autism.
After the gathering of data and a specific amount of time for study, the team found out that 1,054 registered babies or 0.72 percent of the entire study population was diagnosed with autism at an age average of 4.5 years. Meanwhile, only 31 infants were diagnosed with autism out of the 2,532 babies whose mothers used the mentioned type of antidepressants during their pregnancy. The number may seem small, but according to Prof. Bérard this just validates their hypothesis that environmental factor plays a massive part in the pregnancy of a child.
It was studied that one of the reasons SSRIs is dangerous for babies in the womb is that they tend to alter the neurotransmitter level in the uterus.
