Breastfeeding while on antidepressants does not affect a child’s IQ, long-term study finds
“A recent study published in JAMA Network Open followed 97 mother–child pairs for almost two decades, all sharing the fact that the children had been exposed to SSRI antidepressants during pregnancy. The goal was to compare the cognitive abilities between children who were exposed to SSRIs through breast milk and in the womb with those whose exposure stopped at birth.
The verbal and performance IQ tests showed that exposure to SSRIs via breast milk did not result in lower IQ, as the scores were comparable with those not exposed.
When the children reached ages 4 to 5, their cognitive abilities were assessed using standardized IQ tests. Children who were breastfed but not exposed to SSRIs after birth had an average score of 109, whereas those who were breastfed and exposed to SSRIs scored slightly lower at 106. These findings indicated that additional exposure to SSRIs via breastfeeding was not associated with lower IQ.”
Dr. Reinhardt: Really, a fair trial? Just some of the more obvious deceptions:
1. They ran a study for 20 years, but only reported age 4-5, what about later in life when you can actually test IQ?
2. They only studies 97 children, pretty hard to find a valid difference
3. Comparing the mothers at the start of the study, 4 times as many with no SSRI exposure compared to the with SSRI exposure smoked, twice as many with alcohol use, IQ was 5 points lower (IQ is hereditary), 1/3 more were depressed. All of these things are known to lower child IQ, making the No SSRI group a very poor match, clearly cherry picked.
4. Despite cooking the sample groups to minimize ability to show a difference, the kids with SSRI exposure STILL had a deficit of 3 IQ points.
And then they stated exposure to SSRIs via breastfeeding was not associated with lower IQ!
I suppose one must take care of their drug company advertisers…