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

ASD doesn't have a single cause. Some things you just cannot find out.

My son was born at 26 weeks and spent 5 months in hospital. I was convinced that was the "cause" of his autism. However, as he's grown older (now 14) I realised that I have a lot of similar traits to him. I was always the "weird child" at school (80s) but now it's very enlightening and I'm pretty sure I'm autistic.
My sister's son was then diagnosed autistic too and now goes to a special needs school.
It's made me realise that autism is genetic and nothing that I did would have made any difference.

Hi i understand your need to blame something or search for an answer however i have many friends that took this. Including one friend who e for all her threee pregnancy’s and not one of her children has any kind of problem
they are all teen /pre teen or at primary and are very bright and sociable so I don’t think the antidepressants to blame

I don’t think the mother caused it of course not, but we need to know what happened.

Sorry but you are being very silly.
I had a fabulous pregnancy so didn’t take a single tablet, not even a paracetamol and my daughter is autistic.

no idea 🤷

do you think mother cause it?

So why do you think it’s happened?

all of mine have Asd. Nothing in the family. I didn't even take s single paracetamol during pregnancy...it can happen to anyone. it's not your fault.

I think the question is how can it not have an impact of some kind on the baby and its development?

Given how they work.

I think there is a link to anti depressants taken in pregnancy in NT mothers, yes.

Some ND is genetic but not all.
This is not your fault, you trusted your doctor to advise you safely.

There needs to be an urgent inquiry in my view.

I was on pregabalin until the second trimester with my eldest. She has some mild traits of ASD but it's a kind of wait and see thing as she's only 2.5. I spent around 6 months in hell and focused on certain things convinced I'd given her ASD. It ruined some of my time as a FTM. The guilt was horrendous. But then I started to learn about how ADHD affects women and I'm pretty certain I have it and will be seeking a diagnosis. My mum also has some autistic traits so I actually think if there's anything it's genetic and not the meds.

My youngest is a baby but she does some of the things her sister did as a baby like avoiding eye contact during feeding so it could be something there, could be nothing but I'm not allowing it to spoil this time with her.

I honestly think the link to ND and anti depressants is as someone said upthread that ND women are much more likely to suffer with mental health issues and therefore be on ADs. Although I wasn't on ADs the pregabalin was for pain but I actually used it for anxiety aswell.

That association only talks about vaccines though, not drug intake or drug intake during pregnancy?

Different studies suggest different things

eg
https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j2811

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9963091/

^ Ofc these are random links, not a proper literature review

I took prozac and my son has asd..as does my other son who I didn't take anything with

There have been medical studies on exactly this, and they're basically inconclusive. There was a small effect in one study, but they're not sure whether it was really because of the SSRIs and not some other thing.

@Guilty85 I think when something like this happens we look for reasons that make sense to us. I feel you are maybe almost blaming yourself.
there is no conclusive evidence of sertraline or other SSRIs causing autism and there has been a decent amount of research. tbh we don't even know how the developing brain becomes autistic.

I am sure you baby benefits from having a mum whose mental health is well managed and in the face of no conclusive evidence, your personal experience or even if there are 2000 mums out there on sertraline with autistic children - it doesn't prove it causes it. correlation is not the same as causation.

so please don't feel guilty for having taken the treatment you needed

My eldest is severely autistic. He’s in his 20’s now and I can tell you I’ve blamed absolutely everything over the last 2 decades. I never even took a paracetamol whilst pregnant. Back when he was diagnosed in the early 2000’s I didn’t know anyone else with an autistic child, it was very isolating. The internet was in its early stages so it was hard to learn anything. I drove myself mad wondering if it was this or that. I think it’s natural to blame yourself even if it’s not true. When he started at a specialist school I realised most parents blamed themselves and I didn’t feel so alone. It was good to talk to others.

There will be a lot of anecdata about sertraline and autism on eg., facebook groups. But really, it will be because neurodiverse women are more likely to be on sertraline, and more likely to have autistic children. It’s not causation.

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.

This is such an interesting theory. Could even extend to meeting people online. Lots of kids whose parents met on a fan forum/gaming online etc, which wasn’t a thing 30 or more years ago. Thus more people with with similar traits having children together. Interesting!

I think autism is genetic. I have 2 kids, both autistic. Textbook pregnancy, no anti-depressants, healthy weights, healthy eating, I did have steroids in the late stages of pregnancy though.

But I don't blame the steroids, I blame genetics. Like others have said, undiagnosed ND person + undiagnosed ND person (our generation) = ND children.

Having our own kids diagnosed, you learn a lot about the condition and that's when you start armchair diagnosing all the members of your family and realise the autistic children are just the first generation who have a diagnosis. Family members of older generations were just a bit "weird" or "lacking social skills", my kids are the first to have a medical, recognised label is all.

I really don't think this thread is doing you any good. I understand mum guilt - I was left disabled by childbirth, and on bad days I feel like such a fucking failure because I can't be what I perceive as a proper mother to my DS's.. So I know that it will be so so tempting to ignore all if the people who did not have a link between AD's and ASD and focus on the few who do.
But please remember that this is only a tiny sample of people whereas the research studies that show no evidence of a link are based on huge numbers of people. Also, correlation does not equal causation. But humans like to find patterns even when they do not exist, its just what we do. And adding guilt into the equation just makes it even more likely. So, from an expert at torturing myself, please step away from this thread and stop torturing yourself.

I don't think the Sertraline will have had any impact on your son having asd personally. I'm in a similar position with long-term low mood & was on Venaflaxine whilst pregnant with my youngest son, he has asd & my daughter, 2.5 years older & she doesn't have asd. I've done a lot of reading into the subject as I also queried whether the medication was a factor & I don't think it was

My mother never took so much as paracetamol when pregnant and I'm autistic. I highly doubt sertraline had anything to do with your son's diagnosis.

No. My daughter is being referred for suspected adhd and autism. She already gets disability payment for it and I done nothing wrong during my pregnancy with her.

My child is autistic with high needs and I got induced at 37 weeks as he was an IVF baby and considered high risk and he was very big!! He got stuck. Stressful birth for him. I wonder if I’d let him go to term… but now I’m reading your story and you’re reading mine 😌