Antipsychotics During Pregnancy Not Tied to Physical Birth Defects

Taking antipsychotic medicines during pregnancy does not increase the risk for birth defects, a large new study has found.

Antipsychotics are used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and other psychiatric disorders. Previous studies of their use during pregnancy have been small and have had mixed results.

This study, in JAMA Psychiatry, reviewed records of 1,341,715 pregnant women, of whom 9,258 filled prescriptions for the newer atypical antipsychotics like quetiapine (Seroquel) or aripiprazole (Abilify), and 733 for older typical antipsychotics such as haloperidol (Haldol). All prescriptions were filled in the first trimester of pregnancy.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/antipsychotics-during-pregnancy-not-tied-to-birth-defects/?_r=0

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I don’t care what they claim, I didn’t swallow any meds when I was pregnant, I’d suggest that others do the same.

I wish the same were true about breastfeeding.

That study just looked at physical birth defects, not mental ones. Also, it did find increased risk for risperidone.

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This is a good point. I think we need to talk to the researchers and get their feedback on the broader issue of impact on mental health of the children - but of course, the issue is that for many things it would take decades and a very long term study with a lot of people to find this out - and those types of studies are very expensive and hard to do too.

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I was wondering if it included Risperdal which is unsafe, but I can’t read it 'cause I’m out of NYT free articles for the month.

For the individual agents examined, a small increased risk in overall malformations (RR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.02-1.56) and cardiac malformations (RR, 1.26; 95% CI, 0.88-1.81) was found for risperidone that was independent of measured confounders.

http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2545072

These are drugs that induce diabetes and heart disease in relatively healthy people. These folks are lying through their teeth when they say that there is no damage that can be done to unborn children.

I guess nothing will stop these people from wanting our money and moar profit.