No mother, or new mother, should ever be drugged against her will. Of course :)

Small miscarriage risk tied to antidepressants
Last Updated: Monday, May 31, 2010 | 1:41 PM ET Comments20Recommend11CBC News
Women who need to take antidepressants early in pregnancy should talk about the risks with their doctor, given a small potential increased risk of miscarriage, Canadian researchers say.

Its estimated depression occurs in up to 15 per cent of all pregnant women. Antidepressants are widely used in pregnancy, and up to 3.7 per cent of women will use them at some point during the first trimester, studies suggest. Discontinuing treatment can result in a relapse that can put mother and baby at risk.

A study of 5,124 women in Quebec who had lost fetuses in pregnancy showed a 1.68 times higher risk of miscarriage among those who were prescribed antidepressants, Anick Bérard of the University of Montreal and her colleagues reported in Monday's issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Bérard is director of the research unit on medications and pregnancy at CHU Ste-Justine in Montreal.

The analysis of the province's pregnancy registry between 1998 and 2003 showed 284 or 5.5 per cent of women who had a spontaneous abortion had filled at least one prescription for an antidepressant during the pregnancy. Each miscarriage was verified by a doctor and compared with 10 matched controls — 51,240 women of the same gestational age, after taking factors such as other illnesses into account.

"In light of our results, physicians who have patients of childbearing age taking antidepressants or have pregnant patients who require antidepressant therapy early in pregnancy may wish to discuss the risks and benefits with them," the study's authors concluded.

The study's authors acknowledged that relying on pregnancy registry data without actually speaking to women "might not have reflected actual intake."

"Despite all the limitations, there does seem to be a very, very slight risk," said Adrienne Einarson, a registered nurse at the Motherisk Program at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, who wrote a journal commentary accompanying the study. "But not enough to make any difference when the women needs to be treated for depression in pregnancy."

The bottom line is that it's still not known whether it's the depression itself or the medication that could be causing the miscarriage effect, Einarson said.

To find that out would either require a randomized control trial that few women would participate in, or a study following matched groups of pregnant women — those depressed and treated with an antidepressant, those depressed and untreated and those not depressed, Einarson said.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/05/31/antidepressant-miscarriage.html#ixzz0pYVQfjb4