Autism Anti Depressent Link

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There is a new "link" to autism nearly everyday it seems. Usually I post those in the news section, but for whatever reason this study is getting massive media coverage so you might be asked about it.
Taking Antidepressants While Pregnant Linked to Increased Autism Risk - NBC Video

I wonder if some of the depressed moms to be are undiagnosed autistics or people with Autistic traits and the depression is co morbid thus the cause is genetic?. Either way the media calling this "scary" and "troubling" is helping no one.

I had seen this article, but had not thought of that. Now, of course, it seems like the obvious question to ask.

I just saw the report on a CBS-affiliated station. Interesting idea, but it does not explain how people can be born autistic without their mothers ever having taken any drugs during their pregnancies.

That is exactly what I posted on Facebook when I saw the article .

PS to the person who said it does not explain the autism cases for those moms who did not take anti-depressants...yes, it actually does. The fact is that to me the people taking the anti-depressants didn't pass on their autism because they were taking anti-depressants, but rather because of genetics, therefore, regardless of whether they took the anti-depressants or not, the genes would still be passed on.

The poster was discussing autistics whose mothers did not take any drugs during pregnancy. No mention was made about these moms to be bieng autistic or depressed.

The panic du jour: Antidepressants and Autism

It wouldn't surprise me if it turns out it were a major cause of a type of autism. Prenatal effects of most drugs are never studied for obvious reasons.

Skepticism About Study Linking Antidepressants And Autism

I've recently reviewed the literature, and it's not a very well-proven link.

Studies generally find a stronger link between prenatal depression and neurodevelopmental outcome, rather than an impact of antidepressants.

Which could support the idea of undiagnosed autistic or ND women with comorbid depression. Another theory is that stress hormones affect the baby, or that an unhappy pregnancy can alter maternal behavior after birth.

Someone should do a study where they compare currently depressed pregnant women with pregnant women with a past episode of depression, and see how their kids turn out. If it's a genetic link, it shouldn't matter if the depression is current or past. If it's due to prenatal stress or impact of unhappy pregnancy on maternal behavior, then kids whose mothers were depressed during pregnancy should fare worse than kids whose mothers had depression before their pregnancy.

Also, they should do neuropsych assessments on pregnant depressed women, and see if their neuropsych results differ from never-depressed women, and if these differences predict differences in their children.

According to this article we have correlation but not causation.

I don't know, it's a catch 22. Taking drugs could well affect the baby. But not taking anti depressants when you need them and letting stress hormones take over will affect the baby also.

Study Finds No Link Between Prenatal Antidepressant Use and Autism

As we were saying