SIDS Is Still a Tragic Mystery, Despite Claims the 'Cause' Has Been Found - Gizmodo

Last week, numerous headlines and social media posts declared that scientists had finally found the “cause” of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Researchers in Australia compared infants believed to have died of SIDS to control groups of living infants and infants who died of other causes, using blood samples taken from newborns as part of a screening program.

And sure enough, the team found that children who died of SIDS had noticeably lower levels of BChE soon after birth than controls.

The first media headlines on the study heralded it as having pinpointed the “reason why infants die from SIDS.” Soon, Twitter users were describing the study as having found the true cause of SIDS.

For one, the sample size is very small, with only 26 infants who died from SIDS included in the study.

The study also only found an association between BChE levels and SIDS, not an established cause-and-effect relationship.

And even if this connection is every bit as crucial as we hope, it would still take years to take advantage of it, such as by finding a safe treatment that could increase BChE levels or otherwise prevent SIDS.

Marron notes that the authors of the study, while understandably excited about their work, were more cautious about the implications of their research than the early headlines and subsequent social media chatter surrounding it.

Even if we do find a clear cause of SIDS, though, it wouldn’t necessarily change the advice that new parents routinely get on how to lower the risk of SIDS for their children.