Using Antidepressants While Pregnant Increases Heart Defect Risk in Newborns
Information collected from a recent study details how Prozac and other widely prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) antidepressants that are used early in a pregnancy may double the risk of a baby being born with a heart defect.
Previous studies have tied SSRIs during pregnancy to heart defects, but also to even more serious birth defects. According to the new study of nearly half a million children born in Denmark between 1996 and 2003, however, only heart defects are likely to be associated with the antidepressants, notes co-author Dr. Lars Henning Pedersen, from Aarhus University, Denmark, and colleagues.
Prozac, Zoloft, and Celexa all appear to increase the risk more than others, as did using more than one antidepressant at a time, according to the report in the September 25th Online First issue of BMJ.
Overall, SSRI use in early pregnancy, defined as 28 days before to 112 days after conception, doubled the risk of a particular kind of heart defect involving a piece of tissue that separates parts of the heart. Zoloft more than tripled the risk, while Celexa more than doubled it. Using more than one SSRI nearly quintupled the risk of the heart defect.
However, the number of children born with such defects was still quite small: For about every 250 pregnant women who did not take SSRIs, one infant was born with the defect, while about two were born with the defect for every 250 women who took one SSRI, and four for every 200 mothers who took more than one.
