| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Prozac and Paxil linked to birth defects: Study
Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that some anti-depressants taken during early pregnancy could be associated with an increased risk of birth defects.
In the study, published in the British Medical Journal, researchers wanted to see if the birth defect risk affected the entire class of anti-depressant drugs known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), or only select anti-depressants.
The link between the use of anti-depressants during pregnancy and birth defects in the infants has been a highly debated topic in recent years. Studies have reached conflicting conclusions, leading to uncertainty around the safety of anti-depressant use during pregnancy.
Previous studies found that specific birth defects have been detected in babies whose mothers took SSRIs. This prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2005 to issue a safety warning about use of SSRIs during pregnancy. The aim of the current study was to find if all SSRIs were linked to birth defects.
The study looked at 27,809 women. The participants included 17,952 mothers of infants with birth defects and 9,857 mothers of infants without birth defects, born between 1997 and 2009.
The researchers asked the women whether they took any of the drugs – citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro), fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), or sertraline (Zoloft) – at least once in the one month before conception until the end of the first trimester.
Continue reading at Prozac and Paxil linked to birth defects: Study
