Journal of Psychiatry

Prenatal anti-depressant exposure and the risk of autism spectrum disorders in children: Are we looking at the fall of Gods?

2^nd International Conference on Adolescent Medicine and Child Psychology

October 06-07, 2016 London, UK

Salvatore Gentile

University of Naples, Italy

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

Aim of this workshop is to analyze recent information suggesting that antenatal exposure to psycho-tropics may impair child neurodevelopment, by discussing available literature investigating potential associations between prenatal use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Despite the limitations shown by such studies (including lack of directly validated clinical evaluation, impossibility to identify women who really took the prescribed medications during pregnancy, no assessment of severity and course of symptoms in relation to the pregnancy, land the lack of information about unhealthy prenatal lifestyle behaviors), available data show that some signal exists suggesting that antenatal exposure to SSRIs may increase the risk of ASDs. Thus, there is an urgent need for further, large, well-designed research finalized to definitively assess the existence and the magnitude of this severe risk, thus confirming or denying that we are truly looking at �??the fall of Gods�?�, since for many years SSRIs have been considered the first-choice agents for treating antenatal depression.

Biography :

Email: salvatore_gentile@alice.it