Dr Michael Evans talks about the single best thing someone can do for their health and in only 30 minutes a day…

A new study from Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Northern California suggests that women who take a specific class of anti-depressant medications, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), have a higher risk of having a child with autism or autism spectrum disorder such as Aspberger’s Syndrome than women that didn’t take anti-depressants either in the 3 months during, or during their pregnancy.

The study authors did not feel that the actual diagnosis of depression or similar mental illnesses had a significant impact on the development of autism spectrum disorders. A separate arm of the study compared women with depression that either took SSRI anti-depressants or did not take the SSRIs and still found a higher incidence of autism related illnesses in the group of women that were taking the SSRI anti-depressants.

Commentary:

There has been a continuing amount of research on autism and the possible reasons for its increase over the past forty years from 4 to 5 cases per 10,000 (or 0.04%) births in 1966 to approximately 100 cases per 10,000 births (or 1% of births) in 2006 based on the CDC published data.

While environment factors have been touted as one possibility, some studies have shown that the women that have the highest rate of autistic children tend to be somewhat older, highly educated and with a higher household income. A surprising finding since other disorders tend to have the opposite findings, with a higher prevelance in children born to women with less education and a lower economic status.

References:

Archives of General Psychiatry
Wisconsin Medical Journal

The President’s Cancer Panel has released ther 2008-2009 Annual Report on Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now.

The 150 page report details environmental and chemical exposure as it may increase Americans risk of developing cancer as a result of long-term exposures. Study raises interesting questions regarding the efficacy of government regulation and oversight in United States.