Antidepressants during pregnancy increase the risk of developing mental disorders in children

Animal studies have shown that an elevated blood serotonin level during pregnancy, caused by the action of antidepressants, adversely affects the formation of the brain and increases the risk of mental disorders.

Recently, scientists have found out that the neurotransmitter serotonin is necessary not only for the transfer of impulses from a neuron to a neuron - it also plays a very important role in the formation of the brain. A low level of serotonin in the initial stages of embryo development will lead to the fact that the adult brain will not adequately handle sensory signals. Both animals and people suffer from serotonin deficiency: depressive conditions in the mother are able to trigger premature birth and neuropsychiatric disorders in the child, right up to autism.

At the same time, as scientists from the University of Mississippi (USA) have established, the surplus of serotonin can lead to almost the same consequences as its deficiency. The researchers based on preliminary observations, according to which antidepressants taken by the mother during pregnancy, can cause the development of autism in the child. To prove this, scientists turned to animal experiments. In the quality of an antidepressant, citalopram was chosen, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. The rats were treated with this antidepressant during mother's pregnancy and after birth, after which they analyzed how this will affect the behavior and structure of the brain of adult animals.

As reporters write in the journal PNAS, males, who were exposed to citalopram during gestation, showed more anxious and antisocial behavior. They often fell into a stupor when they heard an unfamiliar sound, refused to explore the surrounding territory if they saw an unfamiliar object or felt unfamiliar smells; in childhood they avoided playing with others. This behavior, according to researchers, carries the main signs of autistic disorder. In addition, all these disorders manifested themselves predominantly in males, which is consistent with the picture of "human" autism, which occurs in boys three times more often than in girls.

One of the main users of serotonin in the brain are the suture nuclei, which determine the development of the brain at some stages of its development. According to the hypothesis of scientists, the excess of serotonin in the nuclei of the suture could affect the development of a variety of centers, including the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex, and a variety of functions - from orientation on the terrain to memory and emotions. In their article, scientists note that the antidepressant led to disruption of the connections between the hemispheres of the brain. At the cellular level, defects were recorded in the formation of nerve cell processes. Neurons poorly formed myelin sheath, which is necessary for the normal conduct of electrical impulses, which is why, according to researchers, the communication between the hemispheres was violated. In animals subjected to antidepressant treatment, neurons did not synchronize well with each other, which also could not but affect the formation of neural circuits.

Of course, the human nervous system is different from the nervous system of rats, so the results of the study should not be transferred to humans. But all the same the received data force once again to reflect, how much psychophysiology of mother influences health of the future child, and how much attention to the woman it is necessary to give to the neuropsychic health.

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