Excerpts:

Researchers at health insurer Kaiser Permanente found mothers of children with autism were twice as likely to have been prescribed a common antidepressant during the year before their pregnancy than mothers of healthy children.

A team led by Lisa Croen, director of the Autism Research Program at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California, looked to see whether antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, contributed to autism risk.

The team studied nearly 300 children with autism and 1,500 randomly selected children and then checked their mothers’ medical records.

They found mothers of the children with autism were twice as likely to have taken an antidepressant in the year before delivery than children in the control group.

And the effect was strongest — three times higher — when the drugs were taken in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Read the full article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43634951/ns/health-mental_health/