Antidepressants Linked To Birth Defects: Study

A new study finds a link between SSRIs and a heart defect in newborns

By Dena Afrasiabi

A new study has found a link between antidepressants and heart defects in newborns. According to the study, pregnant women who take antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft or Celexa early in their pregnancy may double the risk of heart defects in their newborns. The study was conducted by researchers at Aarhus University and looked at nearly 500,000 children born in Denmark between 1996 and 2003. The numbers of babies affected by antidepressant use were relatively small: 2 in every 250 children whose mothers took antidepressants had the heart defect, which affects the formation of the walls of the heart, while only 1 in every 250 children whose mothers did not take antidepressants was born with the defect.

But in women who took more than one antidepressant at a time the risk was greater. Researchers also found that drugs like Prozac, Zoloft and Celexa increased the risk more than other SSRIs. Some doctors caution that pregnant women and their doctors must weigh the risk of defects against the risk of not treating the mother's depression, also a serious medical condition. Dr. Christina Chambers of the University of California, San Diego advised doctors and patients to "balance the small risks associated with SSRIsagainst those associatd with undertreatment of no treatment." Lars H. Pedersen, co-author of the Denmark study, believes larger studies may be needed in order to come up with more conclusive results about the link between birth defects and SSRIs.