ArticleClinical epidemiology2018
Maternal depression and antidepressant use during pregnancy and the risk of autism spectrum disorder in offspring.
Article in Clinical epidemiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of parental prenatal mental health with offspring neurodevelopmental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Prenatal maternal psychological distress and the risk of autism spectrum disorders in offspring: results from a meta-analysis of observational studies.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Depression and antidepressant use in pregnancy and adverse maternal and offspring outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Early environmental risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders - a systematic review of twin and sibling studies.Development and psychopathology · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Prenatal exposure to maternal depression and antidepressants and neurodevelopmental outcomes: A population cohort study.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Cross-Setting Replication of the Associations Between Maternal Health and Autism.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Early detection of distinct language development in infants of mothers with severe mental illness using fNIRS.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Associations among maternal prenatal depression, maternal autism traits, and child autism traits in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcome (ECHO) program.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2026Article
- Article
- Longitudinal pathways between parent depression and child mental health in families of autistic children.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Neonates at Risk: Understanding the Impact of High-Risk Pregnancies on Neonatal Health.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Review
- Familial confounding in the associations between maternal health and autism.Nature medicine · 2025Article
- Beyond a simple cause and effect relationship: Exploring the long-term outcomes of children prenatally exposed to opioids and other substances.Seminars in perinatology · 2025Review
- The Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Mother-Baby Links: A Data Resource Profile.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2025Article
- Drug safety in pregnancy.Australian prescriber · 2025Review
- "Association between perinatal mood disorders of parents and child health outcomes".Archives of women's mental health · 2024Article
- Prenatal environmental risk factors for autism spectrum disorder and their potential mechanisms.BMC medicine · 2024Review
- Prenatal Cannabis Use and Offspring Autism-Related Behaviors: Examining Maternal Stress as a Moderator in a Black American Cohort.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundResults of some studies suggest that prenatal antidepressant exposure increases the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring, while other studies suggest that depression independently increases the risk of having a child with ASD. Thus, confounding by indication is a concern.
objectiveThe aim of this study was to estimate the risk of ASD in offspring of women who were exposed to antidepressants and/or had depression during pregnancy compared to unexposed women. MATERIALS AND
methodsWe conducted a cohort study with nested sibling case-control analysis. Using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), we identified mother- baby pairs where the mother had ≥12 months of history before the delivery date and the child had ≥3 years of follow-up. Exposures during pregnancy were classified as 1) depression treated with antidepressants, 2) untreated depression, 3) other indications for antidepressant use, and 4) 4:1 match of unexposed women with no history of depression or antidepressant use. We calculated the prevalence of ASD and relative risk (RR) with 95% CI. In the sibling analysis, we compared exposure among ASD cases to that of non-ASD siblings born to the same mother. We calculated ORs and 95% CIs for women with treated and untreated depression, compared to unexposed.
resultsWe identified 2,154 offspring with ASD among 194,494 mother-baby pairs. Compared to unexposed, the RR of ASD was 1.72 (95% CI 1.54-1.93) for treated depression and 1.50 (95% CI 1.28-1.75) for untreated depression, while the RR was not elevated in women who received antidepressants for other indications (RR =0.73, 95% CI 0.41-1.29). Additional analyses to assess the effects of severity of depression suggest that the risk of ASD in offspring increases with increasing severity, not with the antidepressant treatment. The results of the sibling analysis were similar to the main analysis.
conclusionWomen with depression during pregnancy have an increased risk of having a child with ASD, regardless of antidepressant use.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.