SSRIs Linked Autism: Report
Despite several studies, the cause of autism in children is still unknown. Heredity, cited around 90 percent of the time, and childhood immunizations, were believed to be the causes of autism. Despite several clinical studies, no scientific evidence associating Immunization and autism was shown.
Recently, Anne Harding's article published in the Cable News Network website, reported on several studies linking autism with antidepressant drugs. It stated that children whose mothers took antidepressant drugs like Zoloft during pregnancy are twice as likely as other children to have a diagnosis of autism or a related disorder. What is being reported is that another Pfizer antidepressant drug allegedly caused the death of an infant.
What is not safe during pregnancy is the intake of an antidepressant like the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which Zoloft belongs. According to Harding, those children exposed to the drugs in the first trimester were nearly four times likely to develop an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than with unexposed children, as was stated in an article published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Used in the treatment of major depressive illness, anxiety disorders, the depressed phase of bipolar disorder, and psychotic depression is the SSRI which is a class of antidepressant drugs.
What Hardings wrote about on her article is that the experts on prenatal drug exposure and mental health don’t want to discourage women from starting or continuing SSRIs use because confirmation is still needed by more studies.
On the other hand, there are two reasons why Lisa Croen, Ph. D, the director of autism research at Kaiser Permanente North California and her colleagues wants to put SSRI-autism under investigation. First, autism among children is growing over the couple of years. Second, evidence from previous studies suggests that people with autism have abnormalities in their levels and regulation of serotonin, a brain chemical involved in mood and many other biological processes.
However, there is still no medical evidence proving the link of SSRIs and autism. Unless certainty is established, the success of any Zoloft lawsuit may be under-rated.