Antidepressants during pregnancy triggers autism in a child
Experiments have shown that increased serotonin during pregnancy due to antidepressants negatively affect the formation of the infant brain and increases the risk for neuropsychiatric disorders.
Not long ago, scientists learned that the neurotransmitter serotonin is needed not only for the transmission of nerve impulses from neuron to neuron, he still plays an important role in shaping the brain. Low levels of serotonin in the initial stages of development will lead to the fact that the adult brain is inadequate to handle the sensory input. Depression in mothers can start premature labor and neuropsychiatric disorders in children up to the autistic disorders.
At the same time, as established researchers from the University of Mississippi (USA), an excess of serotonin can lead to almost the same effect as the lack of it. Scientists have relied on the preliminary observation that anti-depressants that are used by the mother during pregnancy can cause autism in a child. To test this, researchers turned to the experiments. As an antidepressant citalopram has been selected, one of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. It was used during pregnancy and after birth, and then analyzed how this will affect the behavior and structure of the brain tested.
Participants in the study, which during embryonic exposed to citalopram, showed more anxiety and asocial behavior. Such behavior, according to scientists, is the main features of autististicheskogo disorder. In addition, all of this was manifested mainly in boys, which is consistent with the clinical picture of autism, which occurs in boys three times more often than girls.
One of the main users of serotonin in the brain are considered raphe nucleus, which determine the development of the brain at some stages of its formation. According to investigators, an excess of serotonin in the nuclei of seam could affect the formation of the various centers, including the hippocampus and cortex, and a variety of functions - on the orientation of the terrain to memory and emotion. The researchers note that the antidepressant led to a breach of relations between the hemispheres. At the cellular level observed defects in the formation processes of nerve cells. In neurons poorly formed myelin wrapping, necessary for the proper conduct of the electric pulse, which is why, according to the authors, and was disrupted communication between the hemispheres. In subjects exposed to antidepressant treatment, neurons poorly synchronized with each other, that too could not help but affect the formation of neural circuits.
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| Category: Medical World News | (03.11.2011)
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