Experts have warned that taking antidepressants during pregnancy can dramatically increase the likelihood of the child being diagnosed with autism.
The news came after a study conducted by Professor Anick Bérard from the University of Montreal in America revealed that if a mother took the medication during her second or third trimesters the risk increased by a staggering 87%.
Bérard is an expert in the field of pharmaceutical safety during pregnancy, and worked alongside an affiliated children’s hospital to gather the data.
She studied over 145,000 pregnancies, and followed the development of the children up until the age of 10. The data showed that women who were being treated with antidepressants were twice as likely to have thier child be diagnosed with condition by the age of 7.
It stated:
“Our study has established that taking antidepressants during the second or third trimester of pregnancy almost doubles the risk that the child will be diagnosed with autism by age 7, especially if the mother takes selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, often known by its acronym SSRIs.
“We defined exposure to antidepressants as the mother having had one or more prescription for antidepressants filled during the second or third trimester of the pregnancy. This period was chosen as the infant's critical brain development occurs during this time."
Although the link between the two factors appears to be high, the study still stresses that many other factors have been linked to autism, and that the exact causes are still unknow to us. For example, the age of the mother when conceiving and a family history of the condition has also been linked to increasing a child’s risk.
The report said:
“The variety of causes of autism remain unclear, but studies have shown that both genetics and environment can play a role.”
As defined by The National Autistic Society, the condition is a “lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a person communicate with and relates to other people, and how they experience the world around them.”
It also says that around 700,000 people in the UK are on the autism spectrum.