It’s a heated question: should women take antidepressants during pregnancy? Some experts argue for it and some against, but a new study may ease the minds of women facing the decision.
Researchers say taking a common type of antidepressant does not increase the risk of having a stillborn child or losing an infant early in life. The study was published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
"It does strengthen the view that these meds are safer than we once thought," explains Dr. Jennifer Payne, director of the Women’s Mood Disorders Center at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Although there is much discussion about the risks of using antidepressants, experts emphasize that failing to treat depression can also lead to health problems for mom and baby.
The study
Researchers looked at the medical records of more than 1.5 million newborns and their mothers from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and other Nordic countries. About 29,000 of the mothers-to-be had filled a prescription for SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors – the most common type of antidepressant prescribed for depression during pregnancy.
Full story of antidepressants during pregnancy at CNN Health
Photos courtesy of and copyright PhotoPin, http://photopin.com/
Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education
For years, pregnant women who suffer from depression have been told it’s safer for them and their unborn child to continue taking antidepressants during pregnancy.
Now a new study is challenging that advice, suggesting the opposite is true and advocating against most women taking these drugs. If the depression is severe, however, the benefits might outweigh the risks, so it’s best to check with your psychiatrist or physician.
Experts say about 13% of women take an antidepressant at some point during their pregnancy. Many drugs are called SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
Taking these medicines while pregnant, however, may raise safety concerns, according to a review of existing research published Wednesday in the journal Human Reproduction.
Study findings
"There is clear consistent evidence of risk with the use of these drugs by pregnant women and we know there is a range of pregnancy complications that are associated with the use of these drugs in pregnancy," says study author Dr. Adam Urato, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Metrowest Medical Center in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Full story of antidepressants during pregnancy at CNN Health
Photos courtesy of and copyright PhotoPin, http://photopin.com/
New mothers who read and write blogs may feel less alone than mothers who do not participate in a blogging community, according to family studies researchers.
"It looks like blogging might be helping these women as they transition into motherhood because they may begin to feel more connected to their extended family and friends, which leads them to feel more supported," said Brandon T. McDaniel, graduate student in human development and family studies at Penn State. "That potentially is going to spill out into other aspects of their well being, including their marital relationship with their partner, the ways that they’re feeling about their parenting stress, and eventually into their levels of depression."
McDaniel and colleagues from Brigham Young University surveyed 157 new mothers about their media use and their well-being. The moms were all first-time parents with only one child under the age of 18 months — most much younger than this. The researchers report in the online version of Maternal and Child Health Journal that blogging had a positive impact on new mothers, but social networking — mainly Facebook and MySpace — did not seem to impact their well-being.
Full story of relieving stress for new mothers at Science Daily
Photos courtesy of and copyright stock.xchng, http://www.sxc.hu/
By Alexandra Sifferlin
A psychiatry journal has distanced itself from a controversial and widely cited study it published in 2009 linking abortions with mental health problems in women.
The original study by Dr. Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University and her colleagues, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, suggested that abortion was associated with long-term mental health problems like panic attacks, depression, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder. Seven states have since used the study to support laws that require women seeking abortions to be counseled on the mental health risks. As it turns out, the study was highly flawed.
One of the fundamental errors that plagues Coleman’s study is that the researchers did not distinguish whether mental health problems occurred before or after abortion. Indeed, in many cases, mental illness preceded abortions, weakening the argument that abortion can increase women’s mental health risks. In a commentary, the journal said the 2009 paper “does not support assertions that abortions led to psychopathology.”
Full story of abortion mental health at Time Healthland
By Sarah Costa
“There were no means of transport, so they prepared a bicycle. She lost a lot of blood and when she arrived at the district hospital, she wasn’t paid much attention. Around 6 a.m., both the mother and baby died. I witnessed it. The woman was 38 years-old.” These are the words of a man from the Kisumu district in Kenya, describing a pregnant woman in his community who had died while giving birth during the post-election violence that rocked the country in early 2008.
This kind of scenario plays out every day, around the world; more than 350,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth every year. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occur in developing countries, where the lack of access to quality health care and information results in high fertility rates and closely spaced births, increasing women’s and girls’ risk of death and disability. Indeed, pregnancy can be a matter of life or death for women and girls in these places; and, their infants’ lives are in jeopardy as well.
Full story at Huffington Post
It’s a heated question: should women take antidepressants during pregnancy? Some experts argue for it and some against, but a new study may ease the minds of women facing the decision.
