While the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that “depression is a common mental disorder that affects more than 350 million people worldwide”, a US study proves that taking antidepressant drugs before childbirth increases the risks postpartum hemorrhage.
This type of bleeding, if left untreated, can kill a healthy woman in under two hours. Scientists have therefore tried to understand the causes of this increasingly common complication. In their study published by the medical journal British Medical Journal, they analyzed the data of 106,000 pregnant women, aged 12 to 55, from the national Medicaid program between 2000 and 2007. Among these future mothers, all suffering from mood disorders or an anxiety disorder, 12% were exposed to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of antidepressants, on the eve of their delivery.
Conclusion: these women run a 47% increased risk of postpartum hemorrhage compared to women who did not consume this kind of medication. “The risk of postpartum hemorrhage is 2.8% in women with anxiety disorders but who are not exposed to antidepressants, 4% in users of serotonin reuptake inhibitors,” explain the researchers. that further studies should confirm their work. In the 1.4% of women exposed to non-SSRI antidepressants whose data were analyzed, the risk increased by 49%.
Despite these results, the authors wish to reassure pregnant women who are undergoing treatment for fight depression during their pregnancy, because these drugs do not endanger the health of the unborn baby. Moreover, “if drug treatment is required in a woman suffering from a depressive episode who has plans to become pregnant, is pregnant or breastfeeding, tricyclic antidepressants or fluoxetine can be considered,” recalls the WHO.
