Prenatal SSRI Exposure Linked to Fetal Brain Changes

A cohort study in the US suggested prenatal selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) exposure was associated with changes in fetal brain structure and activity, particularly in brain regions critical to emotional processing. The study included 98 infants: 16 with in utero SSRI exposure, 21 with in utero untreated maternal depression exposure, and 61 healthy controls between January 6, 2011, and October 25, 2016. Mean (SD) age of the infants was 3.43 (1.50) weeks at the time of structural and diffusion MRI scan. Voxel-based morphometry showed significant gray matter volume expansion in the right amygdala and right insula in SSRI-exposed infants compared with both healthy controls and infants exposed to untreated maternal depression. In connectome-level analysis of white matter structural connectivity, the SSRI group showed a significant increase in connectivity between the right amygdala and the right insula with a large effect size compared with healthy controls and untreated depression. The structurally primed circuit in the infant brains could lead to maladaptive fear processing in their later life, such as generalization of conditioned fear or negative attention bias. Source: https://jamanetwork.com/