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New Type Of Antidepressant Safe For Pregnant Women CHICAGO, IL -- February 24, 1998 -- Certain antidepressant medications taken during pregnancy apparently do not harm the fetus, according to an article in tomorrow’s issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Nathalie Kulin, M.Sc., Gideon Koren, M.D., from The Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto, and colleagues studied 534 pregnant women to determine the effect of the new selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), fluvoxamine, paroxetine and sertraline, on fetal safety. Half of the women (267) took these medications at least during the first trimester. The other half did not take SSRIs during pregnancy. "The new SSRIs, fluvoxamine, paroxetine and sertraline, do not appear to increase the teratogenic [birth defect] risk when used in their recommended doses," the authors write. According to the authors, SSRIs are being used by millions of people worldwide. An estimated eight percent to 20 percent of all women suffer from depression and more than half of all pregnancies are unplanned. The safety of fetuses unintentionally exposed to SSRIs has become a concern. The researchers found that pregnancy outcomes did not differ between the two groups. The babies had similar rates of major malformations and mean birth weight and gestational age. Mothers from both groups had a similar number of spontaneous and elective abortions and stillbirths. They also found that the pregnancy outcomes for women who took an SSRI throughout pregnancy did not differ from those who took the drug only during the first trimester. They say that several months after the introduction of the new SSRIs into clinical use, they were contacted by many women who found out that they had conceived while taking fluvoxamine, paroxetine or sertraline. "Our study confirms animal experiments by showing that when used in the recommended doses, the new SSRIs do not appear to increase the risk of congenital malformations," they write. "Our results on all measured pregnancy outcomes are well within those reported in the general population." They added their study did not address potential behavioral differences among fetuses exposed to SSRIs. E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version