Certain Antidepressants May Raise Lung Condition Risk in Newborns

Pregnant women who use certain popular antidepressants may have a twofold increased risk for delivering babies following a rare but invincible lung disease, a new examination finds.

Researchers analyzed national registry data from 1.6 million births in five Nordic countries in an effort to determine if using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants during pregnancy raises the risk for neonatal pulmonary hypertension, a cartoon-threatening condition in newborns that normally occurs in one to two births in 1,000.

SSRIs such as Celexa, Lexapro, Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft are the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants, and millions of women in the U.S. have used them during pregnancy.

Persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborns (PPHN) is a respiratory complaint in which the arteries leading to the lungs remain constricted after birth, limiting blood flow and oxygen.

Risk factors for PPHN add happening maternal obesity, diabetes, and smoking, and together surrounded by 5% and 10% babies as soon as the illness realize not survive.

A 2006 testing first united SSRI use during pregnancy to the complaint, finding a sixfold growth in the incidence of neonatal pulmonary hypertension in babies exposed to the antidepressants in the last months at the forefront birth.

Studies conducted since subsequently have been mixed, together amid some supporting the association and others finding no bump in risk linked also SSRI use.

In the newly published psychoanalysis, researchers from Stockholm, Swedens, Karolinska Institute examined birth registry data from all babies born together surrounded by 1996 and 2007 in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

About 30,000 women used SSRIs during pregnancy, and roughly 11,000 filled prescriptions for them in their fifth month of pregnancy or detached.

There were 33 cases of persistent pulmonary hypertension amid babies whose mothers took SSRIs late in pregnancy, or about three cases per 1,000 births.

Questions Remain About SSRI, PPHN Link

This was approximately double the number of cases that would have been usual in the general population of newborns, but babies born to mothers furthermore a records of a previous hospitalization for a psychiatric illness who were not taking SSRIs during pregnancy as well as had a slightly increased risk for the sickness.

Gideon Koren, MD, of Torontos Hospital for Sick Children, says the psychotherapy raises more questions than it answers.

This is by in the distance afield the largest psychoanalysis to study SSRI use and PPHN, but the fact that women considering untreated depression had a upfront-thinking risk for the disorder raises count doubts very not quite this relationship, Koren says. Many doubts remain, and they should be shared once patients.

Koren directs the Toronto hospitals Motherisk program, which advises women nearly drug safety during pregnancy.

We chat to approximately 200 women a hours of daylight from all gone more North America and toting taking place parts of the world, he says, tally that questions about SSRI safety are common.

Many women obsession to be regarding antidepressants during pregnancy for their ably-creature and their babys, and this is not a reason to retain treatment to a girl who needs it, he adds.


Clinical psychiatrist Alan Manevitz, MD, of New Yorks Lenox Hill Hospital, agrees that untreated depression can be utterly risky for expectant mothers and their babies, but he adds that nondrug treatments may as well as be an inconsistent for many women in the sky of depression.

Depression should not be taken lightly, and women who are pregnant should never fall taking antidepressants without telling off their doctors, he says. But there are alternatives to drugs that ham it stirring expertly in many patients.

Last month, the FDA sent a letter to health care professionals rebuke roughly a reachable risk for persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborns born to women who offer SSRIs during pregnancy.

The reproving noted that there have been conflicting findings from added studies evaluating this potential risk, making it vague whether use of SSRIs during pregnancy can cause PPHN.

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