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Studies helped persuade doctors that treating depression in pregnant women was important to the well-being of both the mother and the fetus. As a result, antidepressant use during pregnancy increased. But new research shows that treatment with certain antidepressants just before and just after delivery may actually negatively impact the baby’s brain circuitry.
Weighing the risks and benefits of using antidepressants during pregnancy is a tough decision. For Taylor Harris, a freelance writer, she knew since she started on Paxil as a young college graduate that she would have to wean off the drug before getting pregnant. Her doctor said simply, “You won’t be able to take Paxil during your pregnancy. But don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll have something else by then.”
The B vitamin folic acid has long been touted for its ability to reduce the occurrence of neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida and anencephaly when taken by the mother before and during pregnancy. Now it is being credited for possibly reducing babies’ risk for heart defects, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Women who are depressed and women who take antidepressants during pregnancy may face a greater risk of delivering their baby prematurely, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry and cited in Health magazine.
For the study, researchers observed a group of 300 pregnant women, most of whom did not suffer from depression but some either had a history of depression or reported becoming depressed during pregnancy. Of those observed, some took medication to treat their depression either for part of their pregnancy or for the entire pregnancy; some did not take medication and remained depressed; and some did not take medication and reported being depressed for only part of their pregnancy.
Years ago, it was thought that pregnancy protected women from depression, but researchers have since learned that being pregnant and recent childbirth may actually contribute to a woman’s depression, filling her with a range of emotions that make dealing with the symptoms of the condition even more difficult. According to the Mayo Clinic, an estimated 10 percent of women experience depression during pregnancy.
Christine K’s newborn baby spent her first four days of life hooked up to tubes in an incubator at a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, a helpless victim of her mother’s longtime use of antidepressants prior to and for the first six months of her pregnancy.
Christine K had been prescribed a combination of Paxil, Risperdal and Depakote five years prior to becoming pregnant. While pregnant she read that Paxil could be harmful to her unborn baby. She asked her doctor take her off the meds, but he insisted she stay on them.
The first warning Faith Gibson had that the hole in her 3 ½-year-old daughter’s heart was caused by the anti-anxiety drug that she thought was safe to take during pregnancy, was when she read a newspaper story about another little girl born with the same birth defect. That mother was suing drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for failing to warn her of the risk of heart defects in newborns when taking Paxil during pregnancy. It was the same medication Gibson had taking since 2002 and during her pregnancy.
Five more suits have been filed in Pennsylvania against the makers of the antidepressant Paxil on behalf of children who have developed severe heart problems.
Washington, DC — The use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors for the treatment of depression during pregnancy should be individualized based on their respective risks and benefits, according to a new Committee Opinion issued by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) Committee on Obstetric Practice. The Committee also advised that a particular SSRI medication known as paroxetine (Paxil®) be avoided, when possible, by pregnant women or women planning to become pregnant due to the potential risk of fetal heart defects, newborn persistent pulmonary hypertension, and other negative effects.
A group representing America’s obstetricians is recommending that women avoid the antidepressant Paxil if they are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant, due to a potential heightened risk for birth defects.
