Antidepressants 'increase the risk of miscarriage by 68%'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated:

Around one in 30 pregnant women take antidepressants

Around one in 30 pregnant women take antidepressants

Mothers-to-be who take antidepressants during their pregnancy have a far higher risk of suffering a miscarriage, according to a new report.

Researchers from the University of Montreal found the risk of miscarriage rose by 68 per cent among pregnant women taking the drugs.

Depression is very common during pregnancy due to the hormonal upheaval, with one in 30 women taking antidepressants while expecting a baby.

Suddenly halting treatment can result in a depressive relapse which can put mother and baby at risk.

The latest study sought to determine if there was a link between antidepressant use in pregnancy with the risk of miscarriage.

The scientists looked at data on 5124 pregnant women who had clinically verified miscarriages up to 20 weeks of gestation and a large sample of women from the same Registry who did not have a miscarriage.

Of those who miscarried, 284 (5.5 per cent) had taken antidepressants during pregnancy.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, especially paroxetine and also venlafaxine were associated with increased risk of miscarriage as were higher daily doses of either antidepressant. A combination of different antidepressants doubled the risk of miscarriages.

'These results, which suggest an overall class effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are highly robust given the large number of users studied,' writes senior author Dr Anick Birard, from the University of Montreal.

The researchers urge that physicians who have patients of child-bearing age taking antidepressants or have pregnant patients who require antidepressant therapy early in pregnancy discuss the risks and benefits with them.

Ms Adrienne Einarson, Assistant Director of the Motherisk Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) writes that there is no 'gold standard for studying the safety of drugs during pregnancy, because all methods have strengths and limitations,' and results can vary from one study to the next.

In this study, there were missing data on important potential confounding factors.

However, the overall results on the use of antidepressants during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage, despite the different methodology, were almost identical to a Motherisk study with 937 women published in 2009.

Although the author says the study could not reach a definitive conclusion she said less there were double the number of miscarriages in the women exposed to antidepressants compared to those not exposed.

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