Antidepressant Meds and Pregnancy: Risk report

From the Where Credit is Due Dept.: the L.A. Times's Denise Gellene did an excellent report on two studies showing a link between elevated risks of birth defects when mom takes antidepressants during the first trimester of pregnancy.

If you're pregnant or taking antidepressants like Zoloft or Paxil, check out Gellene's full story and the New England Journal of Medicine's two different studies on the birth defects. If not, here are the highlights:

• The risks include birth defects of the brain and skull. There is also a risk that the babies will experience withdrawal, including such symptoms as tremors.
• The risks of these problems are small, less than 1 percent--but still worth considering, as the effects themselves are serious.
• The study analyzed baby/mom pairs after mom had taken anti-depressants during the first trimester. This was not a gold-standard clinical trail, but an ambitious attempt to find a link between the drugs and negative outcomes.

The Times's story and the studies point out that the risks of untreated depression during pregnancy are significant. Therefore moms should consider therapy during the first trimester rather than continuing drugs--only in consultation with their doctors, of course.