SIDS breakthrough research

Study finds SIDS babies have low serotonin levels.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, USA, annouced today that they may have found the reason why babies are so vunerable to sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.

Infants who died of SIDS had 26 percent lower levels of serotonin, which helps regulate automatic functions according to the study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study performed autopsies on 41 babies who had died of SIDS to brainstems of seven babies who died of other causes and five babies who were hospitalised with low oxygen levels before their deaths. Researchers believe a low level of serotonin may be the "fundamental abnormality" in babies who die from SIDS. If serotonin levels are too low a baby won't wake up when breathing is disrupted.

Unfortunately, there are no tests to determine serotonin levels in infants. According to USA Today, doctors eventually hope to use their discovery to screen babies for serotonin problems and find a way to protect them, says co-author David Paterson, also of Harvard and Children's Hospital. Those developments are still years away, he says.