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The risk of a fetus developing a rare but life threatening lung defect is relatively low. But if a mother takes a common class of antidepressant medication late in her pregnancy, the risk for her baby to develop the condition doubles, according to a Swedish study.
Parents of children with birth defects who were exposed to the antidepressant Zoloft during gestation are suing the drug maker claiming the mothers took the antidepressant only because they believed it to be a safe medication to take during pregnancy.
Patients who take a blood thinning agent, such as aspirin, after suffering a heart attack who also take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, are at increased risk for bleeding, according to a Canadian study. Both types of drugs have been associated with an increased risk of bleeding, but the new analysis shows that when the drugs are combined, patients increase their risk by 40 percent or more.
Pregnant women who take certain types of antidepressants are at greater risk for preterm delivery or other birth complications, according to a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. The findings add more fuel to the argument that antidepressants not be prescribed to pregnant women and women of childbearing age unless absolutely necessary.
In 2001, Beverly* wrote an e-mail to the drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). For four years she had taken the company’s antidepressant to treat panic attacks. She called it a miracle drug. But her e-mail to GSK expressed deep concern. Beverly had recently married and started actively trying to get pregnant. At the time she had written GSK, she had already lost one pregnancy when, at six months gestation, a rare but serious heart defect was detected and tests showed the baby would likely not survive to term or survive the necessary open heart surgery to save his life if he was born alive.
It has been nearly six years since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first warned consumers that studies linked the antidepressant Paxil (paroxetine) with an increased risk of birth defects, particularly heart defects, when women take it during the first three months of pregnancy. Since then, additional studies have reinforced the need to warn users of these potential consequences.
