Antidepressants During Pregnancy

Two new studies have linked the use of Prozac and other similar antidepressants during pregnancy to a higher risk of complications, such as serious respiratory disease, in newborns.

The research involved antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, which include familiar names like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft.

As Dr. Emily Senay reported on The Early Show, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at women who took these drugs late in pregnancy and found that their babies were six times more likely to develop a complication known as persistent pulmonary hypertension — which can, in rare occasions, be fatal.

Another study published in this month's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that nearly one-third of newborns whose mothers took that same class of antidepressants during pregnancy experienced neonatal abstinence syndrome, which means they had withdrawal symptoms.

Just how dangerous is this for the newborn baby?

Dr. Senay: For the babies that experienced neonatal abstinence syndrome, the symptoms include high-pitched crying, tremors, disturbed sleep, gastrointestinal problems and hypertonicity, which is an abnormal increase in muscle tone. Almost half of the babies in this study that developed this syndrome had severe symptoms. But while these symptoms are uncomfortable, none of the infants with symptoms in this study actually required any treatment.

On the other hand, there's a real danger for the babies in the Journal's study who developed persistent pulmonary hypertension. PPHN is a serious condition that typically involves severe respiratory failure in a newborn infant and requires immediate treatment. Overall, the risk for this disease is very low — only about one in 1,000 babies will get it, normally. But using these drugs in the last trimester ups that risk to about six babies in a thousand, still low, but more of a cause for concern.