Antidepressant May Help Pregnant Smokers Quit
Preliminary results of a new study suggest that pregnant women who are also substance-dependent and smoke cigarettes may significantly benefit from certain antidepressant drugs.
In particular, researchers noted that the antidepressant bupropion ““ commonly known by the brand name Wellbutrin ““ helped women to curb their smoking habits.
“We are encouraged by the findings given that both depression and smoking are highly prevalent in pregnant, substance-dependent patients and are associated with adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes,” said Dr. Margaret Chisolm, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University.
The study evaluated daily cigarette use in two groups of women being administered antidepressants ““ 11 who took bupropion, and 17 who took another antidepressant, either citalopram or escitalopram. The research also included a third group of 28 women who did not take any antidepressants. All of the women were patients at a drug treatment program that consists of a 7-day in-patient stay followed by regular outpatient check-ups.
According to Chisolm, some 90 percent of drug-dependant pregnant women continue to smoke cigarettes during their pregnancy. Smoking can greatly increase the risk of miscarriage, as well as separation of the placenta from the uterine wall prior to delivery, low infant birth weight and increased infant mortality rates. Some medical experts claim that smoking may present an even greater health risk to the fetus than illicit drugs.
Chisolm added that depression is also extremely common amongst these women ““ affecting nearly three-quarter of all substance-dependant pregnant patients.
Though buproprion has not previously been tested for either depression or smoking in pregnant women, the drug is commonly prescribed for both disorders in non-pregnant women.
Because the medication has few known side-effects and has such a successful track record in treating both depression and smoking in women, Chisolm noted that it was an ideal candidate to attempt treating both problems in pregnant women. Citalopram and escitalopram, on the other hand, have no demonstrated benefits in smoking cessation.
Though subjects of both groups taking antidepressants tended to reduce their smoking, the study showed that the women taking bupropion were able to reduce their smoking by an average of 6.4 cigarettes a day, while those taking citalopram and escitalopram saw only a modest drop of 0.4 cigarettes a day.
Women from both groups were also asked to daily rank their moods on a scale from 0 to 10. The women taking bupropion registered an average improvement of 1.9 points, while those in the citalopram/escitalopram group only improved by 0.3 points on average.
Chisolm said that the group is currently planning another similar study to compare the effects of buproprion with another popular antidepressant, sertraline ““ commonly known as Zoloft ““ on pregnant women with drug and cigarette addictions.
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