New research finds that a mother’s use of antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs while pregnant does not place the baby at risk for autism.
But the rates of autism were higher among children of mothers with worse general health before pregnancy, suggesting that the mother’s health plays a more critical role in a child’s development than the medications she takes.
Investigators from The Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York discovered babies exposed in the womb to most of the medications that target neurotransmitter systems, including typical targets of antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, are not any more likely to develop autism than non-exposed babies.
