Gestational exposure to type of antidepressants associated with adolescent offspring depression
Thursday, April 28, 2016 - 09:30
in Health & Medicine
The use of certain antidepressants during pregnancy can result in offspring depression by early adolescence. Using national register data from Finland, researchers found that children exposed to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during gestation had more chance of being diagnosed with depression after age 12, reaching a cumulative incidence of 8.2% by age 15. For children exposed to maternal psychiatric illness but no antidepressants, the incidence was 1.9%. Rates of anxiety, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses did not differ significantly between the two groups.