If a mother takes an antidepressant during pregnancy, her child may experience delays in certain aspect of his development, according to Dr. Lars Henning Pederson and his research team at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark.
Pederson's team identified 400 women who had taken antidepressants during pregnancy, as well as 500 women who were depressed but took no medication. Based upon the women's own reports, they then compared how many children hit specific developmental milestones - such as sitting up, following the direction of sounds with their eyes, expressing irritation and walking.
The researchers found that, at six months, the only differences between the two groups of babies was in their gross movements. Babies who were exposed to antidepressants during the second and third trimesters took on average about 16 days longer to learn to sit and started walking about 29 days later.
The differences in movements disappeared by about 19 months, however, the babies were still slightly worse at occupying themselves without crying out for attention.
The authors noted, however, that these results do not necessarily mean that mothers should avoid antidepressants during pregnancy. Depression during pregnancy brings its own risks and it is very much a matter of balancing the benefits of treatment against the risks to the mother and child without treatment.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist and The American Psychiatric Association both recommend that pregnant women discuss their own case with their ob-gyn and a psychiatrist prior to making any treatment decisions.
The study appears in the February 22, 2010 issue of Pediatrics.
Three years before I got pregnant, my mother died. I went into a deep depression for a long time, and I wasn’t able to come out of it, without the help of anti-depressants. As soon as I found out I was expecting, I stopped all of the medications I was taking for my mental health, including my anti anxiety medication, which was probably the hardest to stop, b/c pregnancy brought me so much anxiety, as it was! Finally when I was about 8 months along my doctor put me in a psych unit for about 10 days.. We were trying to find a way for me to be able to accept all of what was going on in life for me. I wasn’t dealing well with becoming a new mother. My doctor put me on on a very low dose of Doxepin, an older anti depressant, and I must say it really did the job of taking away my anxiety, and depression! My son was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of Autism, when he was 4 years old. You don’t know how many times I blamed myself for my son developing that neurological disorder!