"Maternal Health Not Meds May Play Bigger Role in Childhood ASD" -Michael Vlessides
A collaborative study between American and Israeli researchers has concluded that consumption during pregnancy of most medications that affect neurotransmitter systems is not associated with the subsequent development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children, although the number of maternal diagnoses may well play a role. "We set out to study the role of medications, but what we really observed was that maternal health status seems to be a much more important factor for a child's neurodevelopment," said the principal investigator Magdalena Janecka, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at the Seaver Autism Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "We observed that women with a higher number of medical diagnoses around pregnancy had higher rates of children with autism,” Dr. Janecka added.
— Magdalena Janecka, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Seaver Autism Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai