The Safety of SSRIs During Pregnancy
The Safety of SSRIs During Pregnancy
This is the Medscape Psychiatry Minute. I'm Dr Peter Yellowlees.
There is a long-standing debate about the safety of antidepressants during pregnancy. Now, a team of investigators from the University of Helsinki, Finland, have performed a population-based prospective birth cohort study of all 845,345 singleton live births in Finland between 1996 and 2010. Pregnancies were classified as exposed to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (n = 15,729), unexposed to SSRIs but with psychiatric diagnoses (n = 9652), and unexposed to medications and psychiatric diagnoses (n = 31,394).
The authors found that treatment of maternal psychiatric disorders with SSRIs during pregnancy was related to a lower risk for preterm birth and cesarean section compared with mothers who were untreated, but both of these groups had a slightly higher risk for neonatal maladaptation, such as a low Apgar score or needing intensive care unit (ICU) monitoring compared with offspring of unexposed mothers.
These findings inform our clinical practice by confirming that overall, it is safer for a patient to take antidepressants in pregnancy to treat depression than to remain untreated.
I'm Dr Peter Yellowlees.
This is the Medscape Psychiatry Minute. I'm Dr Peter Yellowlees.
There is a long-standing debate about the safety of antidepressants during pregnancy. Now, a team of investigators from the University of Helsinki, Finland, have performed a population-based prospective birth cohort study of all 845,345 singleton live births in Finland between 1996 and 2010. Pregnancies were classified as exposed to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (n = 15,729), unexposed to SSRIs but with psychiatric diagnoses (n = 9652), and unexposed to medications and psychiatric diagnoses (n = 31,394).
The authors found that treatment of maternal psychiatric disorders with SSRIs during pregnancy was related to a lower risk for preterm birth and cesarean section compared with mothers who were untreated, but both of these groups had a slightly higher risk for neonatal maladaptation, such as a low Apgar score or needing intensive care unit (ICU) monitoring compared with offspring of unexposed mothers.
These findings inform our clinical practice by confirming that overall, it is safer for a patient to take antidepressants in pregnancy to treat depression than to remain untreated.
I'm Dr Peter Yellowlees.
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