Pregnancy Warning on Antidepressants

Women who take Prozac or certain other antidepressants late in pregnancy raise the risk that their babies will suffer jitteriness, irritability and serious respiratory problems in their first couple of weeks, researchers say.

Babies born to women taking antidepressants in the last three months of pregnancy were three times more likely to develop drug-related symptoms than those born to women who did not use the drugs or took them only in early pregnancy, according to a University of Pittsburgh study that pooled previous research.

The study was published in Wednesday's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Most of the symptoms were mild and usually disappeared after about two weeks, but some required hospitalization in intensive care, the researchers said.

The drugs involved include Prozac, Paxil and other antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRI's, and also serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, which include Effexor.

Courtesy of AP 5/18/2005