According to one study, 2 antidepressants are associated with an increased risk of birth defects in newborns whose mothers have been treated with them.
In 2014, a study of National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, in the United States, has shown that taking antidepressants during the first semester of pregnancy could result in hyperactivity in the child. The latest study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) by a team from this center, focuses on the potential link between antidepressants and malformations. For some medicines, there is a higher risk of giving birth to a child with anencephaly (head defect), or another abnormality in his vital organs.
Fluoxetine and paroxetine
The researchers studied the cases of 17,952 mothers, who had a child suffering from a congenital malformation, and 9,857 mothers, who gave birth to a healthy child, between 1997 and 2009. The idea was to see if, among the children having undergone this type of defect, the mothers had taken antidepressants during the pregnancy, and of what type.
Two molecules have thus been identified as carrying risks: fluoxetine (Prozac) and paroxetine (Deroxat). In the first case, the study suggests that the drug could promote head and heart defects in the child. In the second, heart, brain, cranial and abdominal wall malformations could be linked to taking antidepressants.
The risk of a heart defect
However, we should not be alarmist. If a link has certainly been identified, the probability of seeing your child develop an anomaly, when taking antidepressants, remains particularly low.
Thus, anencephaly is only observed in 2 to 7 cases per 10,000 births. The risk of developing a heart defect would be between 10 and 24 per 10,000.
These results are still insignificant, in any case to push doctors to prescribe a stop of treatment to pregnant women. Additional studies should be carried out to clearly identify, when a case of malformation occurs, the share of responsibility attributable to drugs.
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