The findings: Moms who took paroxetine (aka Paxil or Pexeva) or fluoxetine (Prozac) were more likely to deliver babies with birth defects than women who took other antidepressants or none at all.
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The link between antidepressants and birth defects has been confirmed in some SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), but not in all of them. It did not find an increased risk with other drugs such as Zoloft, Celexa and Lexapro.
However, the scientists could not ascertain for certain if these drugs actually cause the birth defects, the researchers only reached to a conjecture that these drugs may be associated with higher number of birth abnormalities in the children whose mothers took the medication.
McCabe told NPR he hopes women will understand that “being on an antidepressant should not keep them from having a pregnancy, because they can be put on a drug that’s safe for their baby and will control their depression”. Their analysis included 17,952 mothers of infants with birth defects, and 9,857 mothers of infants without birth defects, born between 1997 and 2009. Studies have reached conflicting conclusions. In addition, it increases the risk for a heart defect to 24 per 10,000.
Treatment guidelines regarding depression during pregnancy published in 2009 by the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend discontinuing antidepressants if women are minimally symptomatic for a long period of time, but allow for the initiation or continuation of antidepressants if a woman is experiencing a moderate or severe episode or has a history of them. However, no such associations were found for sertraline, citalopram, or escitalopram.
Scientists from Canada and the United States analyzed women who have taken in antidepressants while they were pregnant. Some studies have found prenatal exposure to SSRIs to be associated with heart and brain defects, autism, and more, while others have found the risk to be minimal or nonexistent.
Prozac usage was linked to defects like misshapen skulls and Paxil was associated with defects such as intestines growing outside of the baby’s body and missing parts of the brain and skull. He went in to add that unlike thalidomide or alcohol syndrome, these drugs simply don’t pose that kind of risk.
Finally, Pereira concludes, “None of this demonstrates that there’s a cause and effect association and we know that stopping SSRI treatment in patients who are being treated for depression can precipitate major depressive episodes, which can be risky for pregnancy and for pregnant women”.
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Reefhuis also cautioned that it’s not certain that antidepressants directly boost the risk of birth defects. It is important to note, however, that the risk is a really small one.
