SSRI use in pregnancy and birth defects
A recent case-control analysis from the National Center on Birth Defects compared women who had children with birth defects to those without, to assess the association of the birth defects with specific SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) taken from the month before pregnancy and through the third month of pregnancy (see depression ssri birth defects bmj2015 in dropbox, or BMJ 2015;350:h3190). details: --17952 mothers of infants with birth defects from US centers in 10 states were compared with 9857 who did not have infants with birth defects. they looked specifically at the birth defects previously reported to be associated with SSRIs, with data from the US National Birth Defects Prevention Study database. Excluded were mothers at higher risk for having children with birth defects for other reasons (diabetes, teratogenic drugs), or those not on SSRIs for psych conditions including depression, bipolar dis...