Earlier studies had raised questions about antidepressants in a class of drugs known as Selective Serotonin Reuptae Inhibitors or SSRIs, prompting the FDA in 2005 for issuing a safety warning relating to the use of treatments during pregnancy.
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Government study unleashes Lexapro, Celexa and Zoloft from the originial and category of anti-depressants that had been on a huge legal action over birth taint statements. They compared independent published studies with data from the US National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Researchers tested Lexapro, Celexa, Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil by giving them to women who were in any time from a month before conception until the last month of their first trimester, and then they analyzed the drugs’ affinity to cause defects.
Two of the most-commonly prescribed antidepressants – fluoxetine, sold under the brand name Prozac, and paroxetine, sold as Paxil or Seroxat – increased the risk of a few birth defects by up to three and a half times. In this study these drugs had been identified to be substantially related with different birth defects, but the all round risk remained exceptionally low. “Of course, not all antidepressants work the same for everybody, so that’s something that women need to consult with their health care provider about”.
Women who take certain antidepressants during pregnancy are more likely to have a baby with a birth defect, research suggests. In spite of the findings the specialists strongly cautioned against pregnant women forgoing medication therapy without the need of consulting a physician due to the risks associated with depression during pregnancy.
Reefhuis was also comforted that the use of Zoloft didn’t aid in birth defects, as almost 40% of the studied women took Zoloft as an anti-depressant.
The women who used Prozac for treating their depressing behavior saw higher rate of heart defects and craniosyntosis, which is a condition that alter joints of the baby’s skull in an unnatural way. The risk of a heart defect while taking Paxil is 24 cases for every 10,000 pregnancies.
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The analysis was only able to show links between the drugs and birth defects, but could not prove that the drugs caused the deformities.
