Use of certain antidepressants may be linked to an increased threat of birth defects, according to a large-scale government study, by U.S. and Canadian researchers. Certain drugs such as, Celexa, Lexapro, and Pfizer’s Zoloft were cleared of inducing any such dangers. But, Prozac and Paxil have been established to elevate the chances of potential severe health issues for the baby who is due.
After observing many studies, the US Food and Drug Administration decided to publish a warning to pregnant mothers about the use of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI), which seemed to link the use of it to birth defects. Forty percent of expectant mothers who take SSRIs early in their pregnancies are prescribed Zoloft, the safest drug, sertraline.
Another research recently publshed, focused on if and how the specific depression treatment itself affected birth defect risk, as opposed to looking at the drug class as a whole. These results by the U.S. National Birth Defects Prevention Study have also been published in the British Medical Journal.
On one hand, the researchers concluded that Celexa, Lexapro and Zoloft did not affect or influence birth defect risk if used during pregnancy, after consideration of cases with 28,000 women. On the other hand, elevated risk of birth defects was proved to have a relation to the use of Paxil and Prozac. The report showed that the use of these antidepressants can increase birth defect risk by anything from 200% to a dangerous 350%.
The effects of Paxil included increased risk of the baby being born with anencephaly or an external protrusion of the intestines of the baby, when born. Skull deformation of the baby was found to be a likely cause of the use of Prozac by pregnant mothers. And lastly, the use of both of these antidepressants was believed to elevate the risk of heart defects.
The research team could not prove in this study that these popular antidepressants were the direct causes of the deformities. Although, the results made it evident that these drugs can be linked to an increase in birth defect risk.
