Antidepressants during pregnancy increase the risk of mental disorders in children

Animal studies have shown that elevated blood serotonin levels during pregnancy, caused by antidepressants, negatively affect brain development and increase the risk of mental disorders.

Recently, scientists have found out that the neurotransmitter serotonin is necessary not only for transmitting impulses from neuron to neuron - it also plays a very important role in the formation of the brain. Low levels of serotonin in the early stages of embryonic development will lead to the adult brain inadequately processing sensory signals. Both animals and humans suffer from serotonin deficiency: depressive states in the mother can trigger premature birth and psychoneurological disorders in the child, including autism.

At the same time, as scientists from the University of Mississippi (USA) have established, an excess of serotonin can lead to almost the same consequences as its deficiency. The researchers relied 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, the scientists turned to animal experiments. Citalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, was chosen as an antidepressant. Rats were treated with this antidepressant during the mother's pregnancy and after birth, after which they analyzed how this would affect the behavior and brain structure of the adult animals.

As the authors of the paper write in the journal PNAS, males exposed to citalopram during pregnancy showed more anxious and antisocial behavior. They were more likely to freeze when they heard an unfamiliar sound, refuse to explore the surrounding area if they saw an unfamiliar object or smelled unfamiliar odors; as children, they avoided playing with others. Such behavior, according to the researchers, bears the main features of autistic disorder. In addition, all these disorders were manifested 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 is considered to be the raphe nuclei, which determine the development of the brain at some stages of its development. According to the hypothesis of scientists, excess serotonin in the raphe nuclei could affect the development of a variety of centers, including the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex, and a variety of functions - from orientation to memory and emotions. In their article, the scientists note that the antidepressant led to a disruption of connections between the hemispheres of the brain. At the cellular level, defects in the formation of nerve cell processes were recorded. The neurons poorly formed the myelin sheath necessary for the normal conduction of electrical impulses, which, according to the researchers, is why the communication between the hemispheres was disrupted. In animals subjected to antidepressant treatment, neurons poorly synchronized 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 people. But still, the data obtained make us think once again about how much the mother's psychophysiology affects the health of the future child, and how much attention a woman should pay to her neuropsychic health.

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