In UK, Anti-Depressant Use In Pregnancy Up 400 Percent

Between 1992 and 2006, the prescribing of anti-depressants to pregnant women in the UK went from 0.8 percent to 3.3 percent, according to the Times of London. What's more, 4.8 percent of pregnant women received anti-depressants at some point during their pregnancy. That's a dramatic increase from the early-1990s, of course, and mirrors what's gone on in the US. One American study found that 13 percent of a cohort of pregnant moms in one state's Medicaid program received anti-depressants.

The paper notes, based upon a conference presentation by British researchers:

"The researchers found many pregnant women did not take antidepressants for the full course of medication, and less than one woman in five continued to take the drugs for the entire duration of pregnancy.

"They said that the high rate of discontinuation carried its own risks, because of the possibility women might be left at risk of post-natal depression, which had to be balanced against the potential for birth defects.

"When taken by pregnant women, SSRIs can cross the placenta and have the potential to affect newborn babies. Drugs such as Seroxat (paroxetene) have been associated with congenital malformations. Some evidence suggests that SSRIs are associated with neonatal complications such as neonatal abstinence syndrome and persistent pulmonary hypertension."

If only one in five women who get the drugs continue them for the course of their pregnancy, then that's an epic amount of withdrawal going on. There were 669,601 lives births in England and Wales in 2006, according to the UK's National Statistics. That works out to about 22,000 pregnant women who were prescribed anti-depressants, using the 3.3 percent number.

Beyond questions of possible birth defects (the evidence seems mixed, but there are enough cases to believe that something is afoot), there's a huge disconnect between doctors and patients on anti-depressant use during pregnancy. A group called Society for Women’s Health Research (sponsored by a huge array of pharma companies) claimed in 2007 that 10 percent of women think it is safe for women to take meds for depression while they are pregnant while 68 percent of doctors think it's safe. That's kind of a wide gulf. I wonder how wide it is in the UK.