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Original poster

To think that taking Sertraline when pregnant caused my son's ASD?

189 replies

Guilty85 · 24/05/2024 21:24

So I took about 150 to 200 mg of Sertraline throughout my pregnancy as I am prone to low mood. I remember a doctor at the time said it was ok for me to take it while pregnant and especially if the benefits outweigh the negatives. My son is 7 and is autistic, he is verbal but struggles socially and is very delayed speech wise and emotionally.
I can't help but wonder did the chemicals in the anti depressants enter his blood stream and for want of a better word, give him autism.
If your child has an Autism diagnosis, did you take antidepressants during your pregnancy?
This is something that has been niggling me for years. I don't have any other children so can't compare.

OP posts:
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12
TheShellBeach · 26/05/2024 14:30

imgoodthanks · 26/05/2024 14:27

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/migration-and-autism-spectrum-disorder-populationbased-study/484A626477247A7BFAEF8DEDF753B5CC

Show quote history

I can't take that seriously.
It's from 2007 and it talks about high and low functioning autism.

TheShellBeach · 26/05/2024 12:22

I did read once that children born to mothers not living in their home country were more likely to have autism

What nonsense.

TheShellBeach · 26/05/2024 12:20

BeethovenNinth · 26/05/2024 10:40

guilty I am the same and absolutely am not autistic. Do you think there is a tendency to label many mental health issues as autism in women?

Autism is a diagnosis.
It is not a label.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 26/05/2024 12:00

BeethovenNinth · 26/05/2024 10:34

But arse did yours have absolutely bugger all symptoms when younger?

my younger kids who are also considered NT have a couple of traits each (one doesn’t like really big crowds, the other is a little introspective) and I’m utterly terrified they will take the same route. I now see ASD in girls as a hidden monster. It has nearly destroyed us. I cannot cope if it happens with the others. The anorexia alone was horrific and there was no help until her life was in danger

(masks - yes. We have tried to drill down to the trauma and a lot stems from the treatment of Covid in the school. Scottish kids were masked all day in school and she had no transition from primary and don’t know where she was going and couldn’t see anyone’s face. She has symptoms of PTSD from this and behavioural issues of some of the kids)

Pretty much.

Very sociable and friendly. Lots of friends, did well in school. Happy.

The only things looking back were
Mwltdowns after childcare
Being irritable/awkward
Refusing to wear certain clothes.

When she was 10 she had really bad anxiety about a teacher in school. But that went.

But these were only random things across her childhood. Not all the time.

She talked and smiled early. Always maintained eyecontact. Cuddly and loving.

LoveSandbanks · 26/05/2024 11:07

Darling @Guilty85, please stop blaming yourself. I took Sertraline all the way through my third pregnancy and he’s the only one of my children who’s NOT autistic.

it’s not the sertraline but it IS genetic (and you can’t blame yourself for that either)

Owl9to5 · 26/05/2024 10:46

My son has autism. I have adhd. His Profile is more obvious. He was harder to raise !

I did read once that children born to mothers not living in their home country were more likely to have autism. I felt responsible, although not to blame.

FluentRubyDog · 26/05/2024 10:44

ASD requires a genetic/environmental combination of predispositions that leads to a lack of neorusynaptic pruning, which then causes ASD.

Sertraline regulates serotonin. It would not, on it's own, cause ASD.

Daftasabroom · 26/05/2024 10:43

mossylog · 26/05/2024 01:44

People in this thread are conflating 'genetic' with 'inherited'. Autism is genetic but it isn't always inherited.

To explain: scientists think about half of autistic cases are due to spontaneous gene mutations. i.e. it's the genes that are causing the autism, but these genes aren't inherited from their parents. This is why autism is more common in children from older parents, as eggs/sperm from older people is known to make mutations more likely.

It's possible for other things during pregnancy (like heavy metal poisoning) to increase the likelihood of gene mutations, so SSRIs having an effect wouldn't be completely impossible, but they are probably not a huge risk factor.

See: Genetic analysis supports prediction that spontaneous rare mutations cause half of autism | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (cshl.edu)

Or if you have access, you can read this paper which also makes the point about parent age: A Unified Genetic Theory for Sporadic and Inherited Autism on JSTOR

That's really interesting, so it's possible that the increase in ND diagnosis is a combination of improved recognition and diagnosis, ND genes from parents, older parents generally compared to pre-boomer generations, and individuals settling into relationships with a high level of familiarity and codependency?

BeethovenNinth · 26/05/2024 10:40

guilty I am the same and absolutely am not autistic. Do you think there is a tendency to label many mental health issues as autism in women?

Original poster
Guilty85 · 26/05/2024 10:36

@Gruffling I don't think I have autistic traits but I definitely have anxiety and worry about the future a lot

OP posts:
BeethovenNinth · 26/05/2024 10:34

But arse did yours have absolutely bugger all symptoms when younger?

my younger kids who are also considered NT have a couple of traits each (one doesn’t like really big crowds, the other is a little introspective) and I’m utterly terrified they will take the same route. I now see ASD in girls as a hidden monster. It has nearly destroyed us. I cannot cope if it happens with the others. The anorexia alone was horrific and there was no help until her life was in danger

(masks - yes. We have tried to drill down to the trauma and a lot stems from the treatment of Covid in the school. Scottish kids were masked all day in school and she had no transition from primary and don’t know where she was going and couldn’t see anyone’s face. She has symptoms of PTSD from this and behavioural issues of some of the kids)

Daftasabroom · 26/05/2024 10:31

YellowCloud · 25/05/2024 00:29

This is unhelpful, and also not strictly true. It is a spectrum.

Anyone with autism in their family will tell you that, on reflection, they have other family members who also have autistic traits. Who maybe wouldn’t entirely meet the threshold for diagnosis, but it makes sense knowing autism is genetic. Yes obviously a person is either diagnosed or not, but it’s plain what OP means.

Show quote history

What do you mean by "spectrum"?

While it's true that someone is either autistic or not, it's is becoming increasingly clear that people can have "spiky" profiles.

noctilucentcloud · 26/05/2024 10:05

BrainNotAvailableTryAnotherOne · 26/05/2024 01:54

Come on people, medicines can have an effect.

DH (on valproate for epilepsy) has been contacted two months ago by the GP surgery to inform him that his meds can affect the development of his baby, if he planned to have more they would switch him to something else.

DS has a speech and language delay, has been assessed for ASD and has an EHCP.

I therefore don’t find the OP’s theory unlikely.

Of course SOME medicines can have an effect on foetuses - valproate is one very well known one recently, the most obvious one is thalidomide.

However, that does not mean all medicines are unsafe in pregnancy. Neither does it mean that antidepressants, or any other medicines, are responsible for autism.

I hope your son is doing ok.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 26/05/2024 09:54

BeethovenNinth · 26/05/2024 09:51

ittakes thank you. Did you also have zero signs in childhood? I feel like the day my child went a high school, someone stole her. She had zero sensory issues or friendship issues or confidence problems in primary. None. Nada. She would attend holiday clubs and sleepovers and ate normally.

covid hit and she missed much of her last year at primary. We are Scotland so kids were masked in secondary (horrific) and she found it all traumatic. We then had anorexia and self harm. She then didn’t get out of bed for three months and she is now largely house bound.

i still DO NOT KNOW what happened.

how can something have absolutely no signs until puberty? She didn’t mask - she was as happy at home as she was out the house.

(we ran tests for PANS and it seems not).

did the retained reflex stuff help your DD? I’m utterly desperate as there is no help at all for my child because Scottish education is utterly fucked for want of a better word. We have a private counsellor and that’s it.

Mine was like this. She managed until y11 then it burst out.Girls mask for as long as they can,

Your daughter sounds in burnout.

Im not sure masks had anything to do with it.

BeethovenNinth · 26/05/2024 09:51

ittakes thank you. Did you also have zero signs in childhood? I feel like the day my child went a high school, someone stole her. She had zero sensory issues or friendship issues or confidence problems in primary. None. Nada. She would attend holiday clubs and sleepovers and ate normally.

covid hit and she missed much of her last year at primary. We are Scotland so kids were masked in secondary (horrific) and she found it all traumatic. We then had anorexia and self harm. She then didn’t get out of bed for three months and she is now largely house bound.

i still DO NOT KNOW what happened.

how can something have absolutely no signs until puberty? She didn’t mask - she was as happy at home as she was out the house.

(we ran tests for PANS and it seems not).

did the retained reflex stuff help your DD? I’m utterly desperate as there is no help at all for my child because Scottish education is utterly fucked for want of a better word. We have a private counsellor and that’s it.

ittakes2 · 26/05/2024 08:58

BeethovenNinth · 26/05/2024 06:23

I think numerous things have been linked. C section births, bottle feeding, antibiotics at any time, pre term birth, ear infections when little, trauma, heart issues…people above mention steroids.

my eldest appears to be neurodiverse and it only has appeared in her puberty (I still don’t understand this).

I have beaten myself up for several factors due to her birth. I didn’t take anti depressants though!!

I think so much is felt to contribute and we will drive ourselves mad questioning it. We need to try to let it go somehow and do our best for our kids as they are

This happened with my daughter too - please google infant reflexes not going dormant and see if that applies.
plus females are better at masking ND - the wheels come off in high school due to life becoming more complicated and it’s harder to mask

ittakes2 · 26/05/2024 08:56

Female autism presents very differently to male autism - is there a chance you have autism too? And that you were depressed / anxious due to masking?

BeethovenNinth · 26/05/2024 06:23

I think numerous things have been linked. C section births, bottle feeding, antibiotics at any time, pre term birth, ear infections when little, trauma, heart issues…people above mention steroids.

my eldest appears to be neurodiverse and it only has appeared in her puberty (I still don’t understand this).

I have beaten myself up for several factors due to her birth. I didn’t take anti depressants though!!

I think so much is felt to contribute and we will drive ourselves mad questioning it. We need to try to let it go somehow and do our best for our kids as they are

10storeylovesong · 26/05/2024 06:11

This reply has been withdrawn

Withdrawn at poster's request

Willyoujustbequiet · 26/05/2024 02:52

EnglishBluebell · 25/05/2024 23:56

Autism is GENETIC

Show quote history

It's not just genetic.

Some of the leading experts now believe there are environmental factors involved because there is growing evidence to suggest it .

Wasityoubecayse · 26/05/2024 02:33

I can understand you being afraid but like your son I'm autistic and whilst I find neurotypicals odd and alarming dispite that life is good especially when you have a great mum. It is unbelievably easy to make us happy. Not easy but deff not the setraline

GrumpyOldCrone · 26/05/2024 02:02

I have three children with ASD. I was not taking antidepressants during pregnancy. However there are autism and ND traits throughout both sides of the family. I think this is the reason.

BrainNotAvailableTryAnotherOne · 26/05/2024 01:56

Now that’s entirely possible that it was just our age on the older side. But no known neurodiversity in our families.