Antidepressants During Pregnancy May Cause Birth Problems
Pregnant women who take selective serotonin reuptake linhibitors (SSRIs), a popular type of antidepressant, may be increasing the risk of a preterm birth as well as the need for treatment in a neonatal intensive care unit and lower overall health for the baby, according to a new study.
For the study, researchers compared birth outcomes among babies born to 329 women who took SSRIs during pregnancy, 4,902 women who had a history of psychiatric illness but did not take SSRIs during pregnancy and 51,770 women who had no history of mental illness
The researchers found that those women who took SSRIs during pregnancy gave birth an average of five days earlier and had double the risk for preterm delivery as those women who had no history of mental illness. Furthermore, the researchers found babies of mothers who took SSRIs dsuring pregnancy were more likely than babies in the other two groups to have a five minute Apgar score of seven or lower, the general indicatedor of good infant health, or had to be admitted to the neonatal intensive cre unit
In addition, the researchers found that infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit and had been exposed to SSRIs had seizures, jitteriness, infections, respiratory problems and jaundice that may have been caused by the withdrawal from SSRIs or had adverse effects to the antidepressants.
