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

[Guilty85]

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.

ASD is genetic. There is no link between ASD and antidepressants. ASD has always existed as part of normal variation in human neurology- even when we were cavemen. It’s just at the end of the bell curve where neurotypical people are in the middle.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/neurodevelopmental-disorders-and-neurodiversity-definition-of-terms-from-scotlands-national-autism-implementation-team/C6582CFF0E5E00F2F0F38F294A6659D1

Agree. There is no association between sertraline and ASD.
Please don't blame yourself.

My son is autistic and I didn’t take anti-depressants while pregnant.
please don’t blame yourself for anything you did/didn’t do.
its more likely there is a genetic link from yourself or your child’s father.
previous poster has said it much better than me!

2 of my 3 children are autistic. I didn't take meds in pregnancy. I am however neurodiverse...

Op, I didn’t want to not post as although I wasn’t on anti depressants, I was on a high dose of labetalol in my pregnancy. My little one likely has adhd, not formally diagnosed but it was suggested by nursery and she is on a list now to be reviewed. Regardless she has been put down as needing extra help to be included in nursery. I often felt guilty that the meds I took might have contributed to the trouble she is having in there. But I just want to say, and I know you are more asking for experiences than this, but it’s quite common regardless of medications and like me, you needed your medication to have as healthy a pregnancy as possible and did what was best for baby at the time, which was having as healthy a mum as possible. I just wanted to say this as I know the niggling thoughts myself and I know with mine came guilt but I struggled to be fair to myself about it. I’m sure more people will come on with specific experiences of anti depressants in pregnancy.

My Dd is ASD and I’m with you. I took anti depressants in pregnancy. I think there is stuff on them causing ND.

Yes and yes, though I stopped taking it cold turkey at about 5 or 6 weeks (once I knew I was pregnant - it was unplanned).

My other child likely has ADHD and possibly ASD and I didn't take any ADs, sertraline or otherwise, during that pregnancy.

That said, I am probably ND myself, which is what caused me to have MH issues in the first place (or rather the lack of support/understanding for that).

I'm autistic, so was my sister, and many of my relations.

Three of my four children are autistic.

It's genetic, OP.

My DD is autistic, and I have never ever been on any ADs. Autism is genetic.

I don’t know about sertraline, but ASD isn’t wholly genetic. There is research that shows women who took progesterone in pregnancy have more children with ASD.

I have never taken anti depressants.

I have 3 diagnosed children, I am diagnosed, DH is waiting for assessment. His older 2 DC are diagnosed. My Dad ticks every box but is in his 70s and doesn't really understand - he has however needed a lot of support throughout his life. My mother is definitely ND, her mother is almost certainly autistic.

Genetics, not medicine.

My son is autistic and I didn’t take any medication when pregnant. Please don’t blame yourself.

Two autistic children. No ADs.

However there is ASD in both of our wider families.

I didn't take anti depressants but I have an autistic child with very complex needs and very behind his peers.

I do see signs of neurodiversity and sensory processing disorder in myself, though not to the same extent.

I did also however let me pregnancy extend past 43 weeks because I was afraid of being induced. My child was also deprived of oxygen for a few minutes after birth. I wonder if those things might be a cause. I understand the mum guilt.

Two dc with ASD, never taken ADs, or progesterone, not even a paracetamol or antibiotics whilst pg.

It’s mostly genetic, runs heavily in both dh and my family. But we’ve all wracked our brains to conclude what we did wrong, it’s normal to do it.

I have an entirely unproven theory that the rise in autism (not just the rise in diagnosis) correlates to the rise in people marrying someone they meet at university or work, rather than someone very local. I think we’re more likely to partner with people with similar characteristics now, and that makes it more likely to have children further out to the edges of the bell curve. Obviously this is all general probabilities over a whole population, not an indicator of any specific pregnancy.

My eldest son has autism. He is the 2nd child of 4 and the only one with any ND. Neither me or my husband have any ND either, nor either of our parents or siblings.

I did not take any antidepressants during pregnancy. I did, however, have steroids due to him being born slightly early. When I had my 4th child last year, steroids were once again offered and the doctor provided me with an info sheet on current studies on a link between prenatal steroids and ASD. It would certainly explain my sons diagnosis as he is the only child I had steroids with. I turned them down last year after doing my own research.

I gave up taking sertraline before getting pregnant as I was anxious about taking it then. I started taking it again as soon as I’d stopped breastfeeding.

It’s looking increasingly likely that my DD is neurodiverse and her school is referring her for assessment. I suspect that I too am neurodiverse, although I’ve never been assessed. I have been diagnosed with OCD and GAD, which are particularly common in people with ASD.

So if my DD is autistic, it won’t be due to sertraline. However autism may be part of the reason I needed sertraline in the first place.

It's genetic.

It’s more likely that you or your partner is autistic. Being autistic and high masking may even be the cause of your low mood

That's interesting - I had steroids when pregnant for my ASD child too and he was born at 36 weeks.

All the evidence points to genetics: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism/the-causes-of-autism#:~:text=Evidence%20suggests%20that%20autism%20may,person%20has%20been%20brought%20up.

Bloody Andrew Wakefield has a lot to answer for making people think it can be induced by vaccinations or drug intake. Arsehole.

Be kind to yourself and don’t look beyond the science which shows it is nothing that can be determined by who you are what you do.

My son was also 36 weeks. He then had meningitis at 8 weeks old.
Im 100% certain either of these, or a combination of both, are the reason he has ASD.

My DH and I were just talking about this kind of thing earlier. We are two weird people, it's not surprising we have two weird kids. I don't know whether anyone "normal" would have wanted to marry us or if we'd both have stayed single if everyone generally married only people very local to them.

Please remember that even if people have taken antidepressants through pregnancy and have a child/ren that are autistic, that does NOT mean that the antidepressants caused it. Autism causes are still being researched but one of these may have been present and the antidepressant use was just coincidental. For example, genetics. Autistic people are more likely to have depression or anxiety compared to the general population, which means they're more likely to be on antidepressants. Autism can be inherited, so you may have an autistic mother who is on antidepressants and has an autistic child but the reason is genetics and the antidepressant use is purely coincidental and nothing to do with it.