Anti-Depressant Use During Pregnancy Linked to Autism: What's a Mom to Do?

By Charlotte Hilton Andersen, REDBOOK

Autism and depression - could there be two more gut-wrenching, heart-breaking and sensitive topics? And yet in a strange alignment of research and Life's Hardest Moments, a new study came out this week showing a possible link between incidence of autism and the mother's use of anti-depressants at any time up to a year before the child's birth. The report, published in The Archives of General Psychiatry, says, "results indicated a doubling in risk of autism if the mother filled a prescription for antidepressants at any point in the year before delivery. The risk tripled if she filled the prescription during the first trimester of pregnancy."

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As a woman who is currently on anti-depressants and was on them during two of my five pregnancies, this shook me to the core. But as I sat with this for a couple of days and let my emotions run the gamut from shame, fear, anger and defensiveness to acceptance, it occurred to me there are a few things I need to remember about this study.

1. It's just one study. More work needs to be done before conclusions can be drawn.

2. Correlation is not causation. Just because the two are linked doesn't mean that anti-depressants cause autism.

3. Don't stop taking your meds. I vividly remember the conversation between my doctor and I where we decided I should remain on my medicine for the duration of my pregnancy. It was a fraught decision and one I did not take lightly but as my doctor said, "you have to take care of the mother because the mother is the only one who can take care of the baby."

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4. There are options. While the study doesn't differentiate between anti-depressants, there are a wide variety on the market and some are considered safer than others. If you are concerned talk to your doctor or a psychiatrist.

5. We are doing our best. As moms we often sacrifice our own well-being to help our children and research like this can feel like a slap in the face but this isn't a moral indictment. It's just information.
My fear is that this study will be used by moms to guilt themselves over past choices or, even worse, by other people to further stigmatize pre-natal mental illness and autism thereby preventing women and children from getting much-needed help.

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Alyssa Zulueta, a mom to two children with autism and who also used anti-depressants before her pregnancies, says, "Through the years autism has often been blamed on mothers, and I worry that we will once again start pointing fingers at moms. I personally think the causes of autism are many and varied, and this could over-simplify a complex issue. There are worse things than having an autistic child. As difficult and sometimes heartbreaking as it is, it's not fatal, it's not painful (as long as they are taken care of properly), and there are often gifts that come with it. I think my kids are amazing. They have taught me so much, and made me a much better person."

Charlotte Hilton Andersen is a mom of 5 and the author of the book The Great Fitness Experiment: One Year of Trying Everything and the blog of the same name.

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