Are Antidepressants safe during pregnancy
Pregnancy and depression
The earlier belief that pregnancy hormone protects a woman from depression is wrong. In fact up to 10% of the women get depressed during pregnancy. Pregnancy does not cause depression but pregnancy hormones release a range of emotions that make coping with depression difficult.
Depression versus anti depressants
- If the pregnant woman is left untreated for depression the severity of the problem has many effects. The diet patterns are greatly affected and the depressed woman does not eat for long periods. This greatly harms the baby and impairs its growth.
- If the pregnant woman develops suicidal tendencies it is a dangerous symptom.
The doctor has to evaluate how strong the symptoms of depression are before beginning treatment. Judgment has to be made according to each individual case. Placebo can also be tried. If the symptoms of depression of the pregnant woman are strong enough to harm the fetus then treatment should begin immediately.
Safety of anti depressants during pregnancy
Researches have come up with the latest findings which state that the newer types of tricyclic antidepressants do not increase the harm to the fetus or does not increase the risk of growth impairment. Doctors are of the opinion that children exposed to such drugs in the mother’s womb match any other normal child in terms of behavior, intellect or temperament.
Unsafe anti depressants
- Some types of SSRI including Citalopram, fluoxetine and sertraline create a rare lung disorder when they are taken during the later half of the pregnancy. How safe is Fluoxetine (Prozac) during the whole tenure of pregnancy is also a fact that is not strongly proved.
- The drug MAO inhibitors are extremely unsafe during pregnancy. These drugs are effective as antidepressants but are a very unsafe medication during pregnancy and harm the fetus greatly. Mothers taking this drug during pregnancy give birth to babies with severe birth defects.
- (Paxil) a type of anti depressant known as SSRI causes heart defects if it is taken during the first three months of pregnancy. SSRI’s are best avoided during the whole tenure of pregnancy, say some doctors.
- The older tricyclic antidepressants are believed to damage the unborn fetus damaging the central nervous system, causing physical deformities and bringing about developmental delays. Newer types of tricyclic antidepressants can be used.
Areas of concern
An area of concern for doctors lies with the withdrawal symptoms. Mothers who are on anti depressants deliver babies who might be irritable, have jerky movements, seizures, rapid heart beat, and difficulty in feeding and lastly sweat profusely.
The remedial measure for this is tapering off the medicine 14 days (a period of two weeks) prior to delivery. The dosage should be gradually reduced so that the mother is free of antidepressants at the time of delivery.
In conclusion one can say if the depression of the pregnant woman is mild then talk therapies should be resorted to. If the depression is of the severe form then both the sufferer and the doctor should discuss it out and come to a conclusion and take medicines that promote long term health of the mother and the fetus.