SSRI Autism Roundup: New Concerns for a New Year

A potential link between the emergence of autism in a child and the use of various SSRI-based antidepressants by a mother during pregnancy has been suggested by research. Not lost on researchers involved in a study published in 2011 in the Archives of General Psychiatry (7/11), is an increase in the prevalence of autism and autism spectrum disorders at the same time as a dramatic increase in the use of antidepressants??"up 400 percent in the last 20 years. The emergence of SSRI antidepressants has given doctors more medicinal options in the treatment of depression and depressive disorders, and their popularity is demonstrative by the dramatic increase in SSRI use.