Journal
BMJ-BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL
Volume 346, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.f2059
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Swedish Research Council [2012-3017, 523-2010-1052]
- Stockholm County Council [2007008]
- Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research [2007-2064]
- Swedish Regional agreement on medical training and clinical research (ALF)
- MRC [G0400085] Funding Source: UKRI
- Medical Research Council [G0400085] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Objective To study the association between parental depression and maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy with autism spectrum disorders in offspring. Design Population based nested case-control study. Setting Stockholm County, Sweden, 2001-07. Participants 4429 cases of autism spectrum disorder (1828 with and 2601 without intellectual disability) and 43 277 age and sex matched controls in the full sample (1679 cases of autism spectrum disorder and 16 845 controls with data on maternal antidepressant use nested within a cohort (n=589 114) of young people aged 0-17 years. Main outcome measure A diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, with or without intellectual disability. Exposures Parental depression and other characteristics prospectively recorded in administrative registers before the birth of the child. Maternal antidepressant use, recorded at the first antenatal interview, was available for children born from 1995 onwards. Results A history of maternal (adjusted odds ratio 1.49, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 2.08) but not paternal depression was associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders in offspring. In the subsample with available data on drugs, this association was confined to women reporting antidepressant use during pregnancy (3.34, 1.50 to 7.47, P=0.003), irrespective of whether selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or non-selective monoamine reuptake inhibitors were reported. All associations were higher in cases of autism without intellectual disability, there being no evidence of an increased risk of autism with intellectual disability. Assuming an unconfounded, causal association, antidepressant use during pregnancy explained 0.6% of the cases of autism spectrum disorder. Conclusions In utero exposure to both SSRIs and non-selective monoamine reuptake inhibitors (tricyclic antidepressants) was associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders, particularly without intellectual disability. Whether this association is causal or reflects the risk of autism with severe depression during pregnancy requires further research. However, assuming causality, antidepressant use during pregnancy is unlikely to have contributed significantly towards the dramatic increase in observed prevalence of autism spectrum disorders as it explained less than 1% of cases.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available