Intake of anti-depressants during pregnancy found to increase chances of birth defects in the newborns, study reveals
-As per the available data, every year close to 135,000 women from Quebec enter into pregnancy. Of these, close to 7% of the women showed signs of depression (mostly mild to moderate).
-In a recent study, conducted at the University of Montreal, included close to 18,487 depressed women participating in the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort (a longitudinal, population-based grouping of 289,688 pregnancies recorded between 1998 to 2009).
-As per the study, of the total pregnant women considered, 3,640 (which forms about 20%) took antidepressants in the first three months.
-Experts suggested that anti-depressants taken during the critical time window of pregnancy had severe potential to interfere with the uptake of serotonin by the fetus which led to malformations.
-Findings were published in the BMJ Open
Source: The BMJ Open