Taking antidepressants in pregnancy ‘could double the risk of autism in toddlers’
Taking antidepressants during pregnancy could almost double the risk of a child being diagnosed with autism in the first years of life, a major study of nearly 150,000 pregnancies has suggested.
Researchers have found a link between women in the later stages of pregnancy who were prescribed one of the most common types of antidepressant drugs, and autism diagnosed in children under seven years of age.
A survey of medical records in the Canadian province of Québec found that women who were given selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as Prozac and Zoloft, between the fourth and ninth month of pregnancy were 87 per cent more likely to have a child with autism compared to mothers not on antidepressants.
