Antidepressant drugs during pregnancy and lactation.

As depression is common in women during their childbearing years, many women will experience depression during pregnancy or postpartum. This paper reviews the latest scientific knowledge on the effects of antidepressant drugs during pregnancy and lactation. Information is presented on physical and behavioural teratogenic risks, impaired intrauterine growth, and neonatal toxicity, withdrawal, and death. Risk : benefit considerations, such as the effects of antidepressant drugs on the mother and foetus compared with the effects of untreated severe depression, are discussed to facilitate clinical decision-making. Recent studies of the safety of antidepressant drugs during pregnancy and lactation are predominantly reassuring, and should guide and improve the care of depressed childbearing women and their infants.