Prozac-contaminated drinking water may be linked to autism

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Prozac-contaminated drinking water may be linked to autism.

<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-06/prozac-contaminated-drinking-water-may\

-be-link-to-autism.html>

By Drew Armstrong Bloomberg News 7 June 2012

Fish exposed to psychiatric medicines showed gene patterns similar to

those found in people with autism, in a study suggesting a link between

drugs that get into the human water supply and the brain development

disorder.

Researchers put antidepressants Prozac and Effexor, as well as

antiseizure drug Tegratol, into water tanks of minnows. Tests showed

that the same genes turned on in people with autism were also triggered

in the fish after exposure.

The findings suggest that small amounts of psychiatric medications found

in the drinking supply may be a cause of autism, the researchers said....

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Psychoactive Pharmaceuticals Induce Fish Gene Expression Profiles

Associated with Human Idiopathic Autism

<http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0032917>

Idiopathic autism, caused by genetic susceptibility interacting with

unknown environmental triggers, has increased dramatically in the past

25 years. Identifying environmental triggers has been difficult due to

poorly understood pathophysiology and subjective definitions of autism.

The use of antidepressants by pregnant women has been associated with

autism. These and other unmetabolized psychoactive pharmaceuticals

(UPPs) have also been found in drinking water from surface sources,

providing another possible exposure route and raising questions about

human health consequences. Here, we examined gene expression patterns of

fathead minnows treated with a mixture of three psychoactive

pharmaceuticals (fluoxetine, venlafaxine & carbamazepine) in dosages

intended to be similar to the highest observed conservative estimates of

environmental concentrations. We conducted microarray experiments

examining brain tissue of fish exposed to individual pharmaceuticals and

a mixture of all three. We used gene-class analysis to test for

enrichment of gene sets involved with ten human neurological disorders.

Only sets associated with idiopathic autism were unambiguously enriched.

We found that UPPs induce autism-like gene expression patterns in fish.

Our findings suggest a new potential trigger for idiopathic autism in

genetically susceptible individuals involving an overlooked source of

environmental contamination.