Can Asthma Drugs During Pregnancy Increase Autism Risk?
For years, researchers and scientists have been trying to uncover what causes autism because it affects 1 in 45 children in the United States and is a growing epidemic worldwide. Many studies, which have been supported by numerous autism awareness organizations and philanthropists like Claire Dwoskin, have found strong evidence that environmental exposures contribute to the development of the condition. For instance, some ingredients found in vaccines, like aluminum and mercury, have adverse neurological affects when an individual is exposed to such toxins. And just recently, a new study from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, has uncovered another environmental exposure that increases the risk of developing autism.
The study, In Utero Exposure to ß-2-Andregenic Receptor Agonist Drugs and Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders, found that women who took certain asthma medications during pregnancy face an elevated risk of having their child diagnosed with autism. The Drexel University researchers found that these women were 30 percent more likely to have a child eventually diagnosed with the condition. The study consisted of comparing birth records over a nine-year period of mothers who took ß-2-andrenergic receptor (B2AR) agonist drugs during pregnancy. The researchers pointed out that the “B2AR drugs can cross the placenta and reach the fetus, which may have an effect on its developing neurons.”
Asthma affects about 25 million people and is a lifelong, chronic disease that causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing, which can limit an individual’s quality of life according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the symptoms can be controlled and managed by prescribed medicines such as inhaled corticosteroids, the CDC cites that women are more likely to have asthma than men, and the rates of the condition have increased every year.
At any rate, the lead researcher and author of the study explained that the potential of most drugs and how they could cause neurodevelopment issues in a fetus is generally understudied. This reinforces the mission to research toxic environmental exposures because autism does not have a cure and finding the causal factor of its onset could open the doors to finding one.
