A study by the University of Bristol, England, of 254,610 young people from Stockholm showed that children born to mothers taking antidepressants during pregnancy had more than a 4 percent risk of autism, compared to less than a 3 percent risk in children born to mothers with psychiatric conditions not on antidepressants. Depression is common in women of childbearing age, with 3 to 8 percent of pregnant European women prescribed antidepressants. But with 95 percent of them bearing children without autism, the risks and benefits must be carefully weighed, say researchers.

This article appears in the February 2018 issue of Natural Awakenings.