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ANTI-DEPRESSANTS taken during pregnancy have been linked with an increased risk of birth defects, research found yesterday.
Scientists analysed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants, which have been increasingly used by women during pregnancy.
The research focused on women who took citalopram, escitalopram, fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine or sertraline at least once between the month leading up to conception and the third month of pregnancy.
While they found “reassuring evidence” for some SSRIs, some birth defects were up to three and a half times more likely to occur in babies whose mothers took paroxetine or fluoxetine.
But the US research, published in the British Medical Journal, said that the risks for these birth defects still remains low.
The researchers surveyed 18,000 mothers of infants born in the US between 1997 and 2009 with birth defects and 10,000 mothers of infants without birth defects.
