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« on: August 23, 2010, 02:43:40 pm » |
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The use of antidepressants during pregnancy has been associated with an increased risk of spontaneous abortion, according to recently published research.
“Antidepressants are widely used during pregnancy for the treatment of depression, anxiety, bipolar disease and pain,” the study’s authors wrote, adding that up to 3.7 percent of pregnant women worldwide will use such medications at some point during the first trimester.
The researchers conducted a nested case-control study based on records from the Quebec Pregnancy Registry, in Canada. They identified 5,124 women who had spontaneous abortions and matched 10 control subjects (women who did not have spontaneous abortions) to each case. They then investigated the risk of miscarriage related to the use of various classes, types and doses of anti-depression drugs during pregnancy. [CMAJ 2010 DOI:10.1503/cmaj.091208]
Antidepressant-use was associated with a 68 percent relative increase in the risk of spontaneous abortions.
“The use of antidepressants… or the combined use of different classes of antidepressants during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of spontaneous abortion,” the authors reported.
“These results, which suggest an overall class effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are highly robust given the large number of users studied,” wrote senior author Dr. Anick Bérard, director of the Research Unit on Medications and Pregnancy at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Ste-Justine Research Center, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
In view of the findings, researchers called upon doctors to discuss the risks and benefits of antidepressants with women of childbearing age who are taking the drugs and with women who require their use early in pregnancy.
“When interpreting the results of these types of epidemiologic studies, especially case-control studies that have a confusing array of statistics, readers should be aware that multiple analyses are conducted; there were more than 100 in the study by Nakhai-Pour and colleagues. With each analysis there is a 5 percent chance of a false-positive result, or, as the authors stated, chance findings,” said Ms. Adrienne Einarson, Assistant Director of the Motherisk Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [CMAJ 2010 DOI:10.1503/cmaj.100507]
She did however state that while the study cannot definitively conclude whether or not antidepressants raise the risk of miscarriage, “there does appear to be a very small increase: less than two-fold for spontaneous abortion among women exposed to antidepressants, compared with those non-exposed.”
Source: mims.com
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