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.

I didn't take sertraline in my first pregnancy and my child is autistic

Took it in my second pregnancy and that child is neurotypical

So no I don't think it's an issue plus autism is hereditary anyway

I would say of the people I know, there's no obvious evidence to see that. If anything the school friends I had that had kids with people a few streets away and still live in the same area have a higher % of kids with disabilities and other conditions than my university and work friends who met partners 100 miles+ away from home.

Thank you everyone for your input, it's interesting to read about people that did take Sertraline and their children don't have ASD.
Looking back I had PPROM with him and was kept in for 5 days for monitoring, I'm also pretty sure that they gave me steroids for my son's lungs at the time, this didn't dawn on me as a potential risk, but reading some of the previous posts has made me wonder. I also had him at 36 weeks.

I believe my ex has ADD and maybe ASD traits - he is undiagnosed. He is hopeless with functioning day to day, no money sense, dislikes crowds and other people, gets very fixed ideas. His behaviours are a cause towards us splitting up and I can see them even more clearly with distance.

Of our four children I would say two have mild traits. My son can be very much like his Dad and struggles being motivated and making friends. My youngest daughter is very self contained, dislikes busy places, can be quite thoughtless and ‘cold’ in what she says or thinks and has a talent in drawing. Neither will struggle in day to day life or need a diagnosis but the more ASD and ND children I’ve seen through my job the more traits I notice in others including them which makes sense in what I’ve seen with their Dad. My other two daughters are definitely NT.

I’m not sure I believe there is a single cause either for autism (which is predominantly genetic) or the increase - we do know there’s a heavily genetic link but there may be other causes or things that make it more likely or affect severity etc.

@Guilty85 you’re not guilty, you cannot be guilty when nobody has a definitive answer to this.

how could steroids dawn on you as a risk - this thread is the first I’ve heard of it as a link (and no, I didn’t have any whilst pg with either of my two dc).

you sound like you need a break to see that you’re looking to blame yourself for something there is no blame for. I’ve been there - my friend sent me the research on autism being mostly genetic and it made me feel better. I hope you find some peace.

The discussion on this thread has mostly been around taking steroids specifically to strengthen the baby’s lungs before an early delivery.

I wondered whether anyone has come across research linking inhaled corticosteroids (such as for asthma), and prednisolone tablets, with increased risk of diagnosis? Or had any experience of this?

I wasn’t taking antidepressants during either of my previous pregnancies even though I really needed them. Both of my kids have ASD and one has ADHD and a learning delay on top of that. I’m currently on 20mg of citalopram and I do worry about the effect on this baby at the back of my mind but it’s the best thing for me and also my family. They need me to be able to function.

I don’t know if there is a viable link between taking antidepressants during pregnancy and the child going on to have ASD or similar but you did the best thing at the time. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Looking after mental health in pregnancy is so important.

I think if a child has been diagnosed with ASD the parents should be assessed too. It would save a lot of heartache and soul searching.
Anecdotally of the Autistic women I know, most were diagnosed and medicated for depression long term.

I tend to agree @RocketPanda but on the whole since I’ve got two girls who are autistic I tend to assume that dh and I probably are, and it explains some of the mh issues we’ve had over the years.

I know people get very anti about self ID but when you spend all of your time fighting for your dc and you are functioning to a reasonable degree, given the wait lists as it is now….

I wish they’d screen for ASD/adhd/ocd/DCD/dyslexia etc at the same time as these one by one diagnoses are so inefficient.

Autism is GENETIC

My DS has autism and I’ve never been on anti depressants.

I personally dwell on whether the lead pipe supplying water to our house caused it (water company said the levels are very low) so I get the ‘trying to find a cause’ brand of worrying! The overwhelming evidence is largely for genetics though.

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

OP, is it possible that you were taking sertraline during pregnancy because you are undiagnosed autistic? So it's actually genetic in your son's case.

Autism in women often presents as anxiety disorders.

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.

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

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.

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

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 .

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

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?

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

Evidence here
https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3388

and here

https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-017-0993-3

amd in loads of other articles.

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.