Expecting a baby, women with mild to moderate depression should not take antidepressants. The risk to the fetus in the early stages of pregnancy is greater than the possible benefits – believes the expert quoted by the BBC News / Health service.
In Great Britain, antidepressants – Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are used by one in six women of childbearing age. Meanwhile, as prof. Stephen Pilling, an advisor to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), has evidence that SSRIs can double the risk of having a baby with a heart defect – from the typical 2 in 100 births to 4 in 100 births.
That is why Pilling believes that these drugs should only be given to pregnant women – as well as those trying to conceive – only in the case of the most severe depression.
The manufacturer of the drug contacted by the BBC denies any relationship between taking SSRIs and birth defects. (PAP)
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