Study finds SSRI use during pregnancy not linked to ASD

Women with psychiatric conditions who take serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy have an increased risk of having a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or developmental disability (DD). However, a new study suggests that the maternal psychiatric conditions themselves—not the SSRIs—are associated with this elevation in risk. 

Jennifer Ames and colleagues analyzed data from the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED), which contains information on thousands of U.S. children born between 2003 and 2011. They looked at data for three groups: 1,367 children with ASD, 1,750 children with DD, and 1,671 children from the general population. About one third of mothers in the study had a psychiatric condition before or during pregnancy, and about a quarter of these women took SSRIs or other antidepressants. 

The researchers found that the risk for ASD or DD was approximately doubled for children of mothers with a psychiatric condition compared to those without a psychiatric diagnosis. However, they say, “Odds of ASD were similarly elevated among mothers with psychiatric conditions who did not use SSRIs during pregnancy as in mothers who did use SSRIs.” Maternal psychiatric conditions were most strongly associated with subtypes of ASD and DD without cooccurring intellectual disability. 

The researchers note that secondary analyses did show some association between prenatal SSRI exposure and DDs without co-occurring intellectual disability. However, they suggest that this may be due to chance because of the large number of secondary analyses they performed. 

Citations

“Maternal psychiatric conditions, treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and neurodevelopmental disorders,” Jennifer L. Ames, Christine Ladd-Acosta, M. Daniele Fallin, Yinge Qian, Laura A. Schieve, Carolyn DiGuiseppi, Li-Ching Lee, Eric P. Kasten, Guoli Zhou, Jennifer Pinto-Martin, Ellen M. Howerton, Christopher L. Eaton, and Lisa A. Croen, Biological Psychiatry, June 24, 2021 (free online). Address: Jennifer Ames, [email protected]. 

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“Risk of autism increases with maternal depression, but not SSRI use: study,” news release, Elsevier, June 24, 2021.