Sudden infant death causes a serotonin deficiency?

Sudden infant death syndrome: the cause is only a serotonin deficiency?

In the early years of life there is still a lot of worry and anxiety among parents, one morning to find their own child dead in his bed. Parents often check their children's cots and see if they are still breathing or moving. Reason for this is the so-called „Sudden infant death.“(SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). In this hitherto inexplicable cause of death, American researchers seem to have brought light.

The scientists around Hannah C. Kinney, MD, of the Children's Hospital Boston, published their findings in the journal „JAMA“ (Issue 3030, No. 5, February 3, 2010). In it they stated that they found significantly less serotonin from brain samples of dead babies with different causes of death, those who had died from sudden infant death syndrome. And they also lacked the necessary enzymes for the production of serotonin.

Serotonin transmits messages between the nerve cells. It is active in respiratory regulation, heartbeat and sleep. It is conceivable that the affected children are not able to compensate for oxygen fluctuations and suffocate. So far, Sudden Infant Death has been associated with prone sleeping. According to researchers at Harvard Medical School, it is conceivable that infants have a lower oxygen content in the inhaled air when they breathe their own air due to their prone position.
Babies with a functioning alarm system with enough serotonin in the brain then wake up well and change position to inhale more oxygen.

So far, the only recommendation was that babies should sleep on their backs in their first year of life. Kinney now hopes that it will be possible in the future to measure the serotonin level of infants in the blood. Then you could specifically monitor babies with low serotonin levels and lack of enzymes. The reason for the serotonin deficiency must now be the future. However, other factors such as stress and a general compensatory weakness of the organism are also discussed. Beyond saving lives, the hopefully soon to be therapeutically useful results, would certainly bring a reassurance of parents in the first years of their child's life. (Thorsten Fischer, Naturopath Osteopathy, 04.02.2010)

To read more:

The study
Page of Hannah C. Kinney on her research