Antidepressants During Pregnancy Can Increase Autism Risk in Babies, Study Says

According to statistics, 10% of expectant mothers take antidepressants, with most of them starting medication even before getting pregnant. However, according to the latest study, it appears that some treatments for depression may be harmful for babies.

"The medications-the most popular of which are the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs-are important for treating depression, but they also carry a warning that pregnant women shouldn't take them because the drugs could potentially harm developing babies," Time reported.

"Use of antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, during the second and/or third trimester increases the risk of ASD (autism spectrum disorder) in children, even after considering maternal depression," the study's results, featured in JAMA Pediatrics, showed. "Further research is needed to specifically assess the risk of ASD associated with antidepressant types and dosages during pregnancy."

It should be clarified, however, that the study found the risk, although present and slightly higher at that, is still considered "very small."

"The overall risk is low - less than 1 percent of the nearly 150,000 babies in the study were diagnosed with autism by age six or seven," Scientific American noted.

"But children of women who took antidepressants during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy were 87 percent more likely to develop autism than kids born to women who didn't take the drugs," the news source added.

The study's lead author, University of Montreal's Anick Berard, said that the study "is not advocating untreated depression."

"However, it is certainly advocating treatment of depression with something other than antidepressants during pregnancy," Berard clarified.

Meanwhile, the head of the Obstetrics and Gynecology department of the University of Rochester in New York, Dr. Eva Pressman, said that it would be dangerous for anybody to stop taking antidepressants all of a sudden.

"If articles like this make people come off medication that they need to function, that's terrible for society," she commented to NBC News.

"If the patient can be safely managed without medication, that's always in their interest," she explained. "In some patients, the depression is clearly more dangerous than the medication."

Previous studies on the matter revealed "conflicting" results, with some showing a link and others not finding one. However, such research had involved a lesser number of participants.

Despite the large number of mothers and children involved in the current study, the results still remain subject for further validation. As hoped by the study's authors, the research could be a "stepping stone" to more studies on the topic.

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