Pregnant women who take antidepressants during the later stages of gestation have more than double the changes of giving birth to children with lung problems.
A new study released by a Toronto doctor indicates babies whose mothers take antidepressants around the 20th week of pregnancy might encounter a complication called persistent pulmonary hypertension - an ailment that can be brought on by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like Prozac and Zoloft.
Babies with persistent pulmonary hypertension suffer from resistant lungs post-birth. This means that the child's lungs don't expand normally, and the baby breathes in less oxygen than normal, Philly.com reported.
Luckily, however, the number of children born with the lung issue isn't enormous - the study found about 3.5 of every 1,000 newborns were affected, according to Dr. Sophie Grigoriadis, who wrote the analysis.
"Women taking these medications in pregnancy should not panic. The risk is still quite low," Grigoriadis, who works at the Women's Mood and Anxiety Clinic at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, told Philly.com. "It should be one of the factors you consider when you decide to use medications, but it has to be balanced with the potential problems that can occur if you don't treat depression."
Pregnant women are especially vulnerable to the effects of extreme, long-lasting depression. The study noted that each pregnant patient might require different treatment, and the benefits of antidepressants must be weighed against risks from depression that goes untreated.
Grigoriadis stressed that it wasn't clear how SSRIs caused lung problems in babies, but that taking the medications late in pregnancy - usually after 20 weeks or so - upped the chances of persistent pulmonary hypertension by 2.5 times. Since women's bodies are all different, she added, it is essential for moms-to-be to seek out treatment specific to their needs.
"Decisions on treatment need to be personalized," she told Philly.com. "Women need to make informed decisions by taking in all the risks of depression and its treatments. Psychosocial treatments [like counseling] are appropriate for some women, depending on how severe the depression is, and how quickly [a woman] might respond to treatment."
