New research suggests that taking antidepressants during pregnancy may have an adverse effect on the child.
A team of researchers based in the United States and Canada found that when taken during early pregnancy, some popular antidepressants known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are associated with an increased risk of birth defects.
"Pregnancy itself predisposes women to become depressed," researcher Dr. Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman told ABC News. "For most women it turns out the risk of taking the medication is much lower than the benefits to both them and the developing baby."
For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from nearly 28,000 mothers who had children between 1997 and 2009. The Use of the SSRI drugs Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft at least once in the period from one month before conception through the third month of pregnancy was recorded, Reuters reported.
Zoloft was the most commonly used SSRI, but none of the five previously reported associations between Zoloft and birth defects were confirmed. This is reassuring as about 40 percent of women reporting use of an SSRI in early pregnancy used this drug.
"When you look at sertraline (Zoloft), it's one of the most commonly used antidepressants," Dr. Bill Cooper, professor of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told ABC News.
He said this finding should be "reassuring" for expectant women.
Researchers also found no associations between Celexa and Lexapro use and birth defects in infants.
However, two previously reported birth defects associated with Prozac were observed -- heart wall defects and irregular skull shape. Five previously reported birth defects associated with Paxil were also seen. These included heart defects, problems with brain and skull formation (anencephaly), and abdominal wall defects.
The findings provide reassuring evidence for some SSRIs, but suggest that some birth defects occur more frequently among the infants of women treated with paroxetine or fluoxetine in early pregnancy.
"Although our analysis strongly supports the validity of the associations that were observed, the increase in the absolute risks, if the associations are causal, is small," researchers stressed in the study.
For example the absolute risks in the children of women who are treated with paroxetine early in pregnancy would increase for anencephaly from 2 per 10,000 to 7 per 10,000, and for one of the heart defects from 10 per 10,000 to 24 per 10,000.
"Continued scrutiny of the association between SSRIs and birth defects is warranted, and additional studies of specific SSRI treatments during pregnancy are needed to enable women and their healthcare providers to make more informed decisions about treatment," they wrote.
The findings are detailed in The BMJ.
