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Happy Pills 'Could Cause Birth Defects'

Posted on: Thursday, 1 September 2005, 21:01 CDT

PREGNANT women who take antidepressants are in danger of causing birth defects in their babies, according to researchers.

They found that a group of medications, including such brands such as Prozac and Seroxat, can increase the risk by more than half.

Women using Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy when many may be unaware they are expecting were at a 40 per cent greater risk of their baby suffering malformations such as cleft palate.

The risk of heart defects was 60 per cent higher.

The study, by researchers in the U.S. and Denmark, compared 1,054 women who took SSRIs during the first three months of pregnancy with 150,000 who were not prescribed them.

A second study of 400 cases of persistent pulmonary hypertension, which affects the circulation of newborn babies, found a fivefold increased risk linked to use of SSRIs in late pregnancy.

Professor Henrik Toft Sirensen, who helped conduct the research at Aarhus University, Denmark, said the results published yesterday in the doctors' magazine Pulse were still in their early stages.

But he added: 'I believe every drug we give to pregnant women we should be very cautious with, because we do not know if any drugs on the market have a risk of birth defects.' Prescriptions of SSRIs rose from seven million in 1997 to 19million in 2003.

The so-called 'happy pills' work by keeping the chemical serotonin, which is linked to positive moods, in the brain for longer.

Doctors have been told not to prescribe them to under-18s because of an increased risk of suicide. Experts have also said they could not rule out a suicide risk to older users.

Dr Ruben Minhas, a GP in Gillingham, Kent, said: 'The underlying theme regarding the drug labelling warnings of recent years is that new drugs which are carelessly promoted as safe frequently fail to live up to initial expectations.' He called on the drug safety watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, to assess the findings.

'Until the MHRA have evaluated this latest evidence it would seem good practice to ensure that all women of childbearing age be warned about these risks and advised on contraception or alternative treatments,' he said.

A separate study has revealed how alarming numbers of women are too unfit to conceive. Two-thirds continue-to drink while trying to become pregnant-according to the research carried out for Pregnancy and Birth magazine.

Three-quarters of smokers continue with their habit, while almost half admit to being overweight.

The researchers said their findings could help explain why one in seven couples have fertility problems.

j.hope@dailymail.co.uk

Source: Daily Mail; London (UK)

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