According to a study in Biological Psychiatry, antidepressants were found to be safe for use during pregnancy, with an increased risk for autism and developmental delay occurring as a result of maternal psychiatric conditions.
The study involved the collection of data from the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED) of children born between 2003 through 2011.
“The current analysis of SEED data included three groups of children: those with ASD (1,367 children); with DD (1,750 children); or healthy population controls (1,671 children),” a press release of the findings state.
“Mothers were determined to have psychiatric disorders and to have taken SSRIs during pregnancy based on self-report and on medical records. About a third of mothers in the study had a psychiatric condition before or during pregnancy, and about a quarter of those took SSRIs or other antidepressants.”
“Our latest findings are good news for women managing psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety while pregnant and are consistent with a growing body of research that’s trying to better disentangle the separate relationships of the mother’s SSRI treatment and psychiatric indications during pregnancy with child neurodevelopment,” researchers concluded in their study.
