Taking Anti-Depressants during pregnancy could lead to Birth Defects
Antidepressants prescribed to pregnant women could increase the chance of having a baby with birth defects, new research indicates. The risk -- 6 to 10 %, versus 3 to 5 % in women who do not take the drugs -- is high enough to merit caution in their use, especially since, in most cases, they are only marginally effective, the study says. "In pregnancy, you're treating the mother but you're worried about the unborn child, and the benefit needs to outweigh the risk," said the study's senior author, Anick Bérard, a professor at UdeM's Faculty of Pharmacy and researcher at its affiliated children's hospital, CHU Sainte-Justine. A well-known expert in pregnancy and depression, Bérard has previously established links between antidepressants and low birth weight, gestational hypertension, miscarriages and autism. Her new study is among the first to examine the link to birth defects among depressed women. Every year, about 135,000...