Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy Increases Baby’s Heart Defect Risk, New Study Finds

Another medical study has found a link between taking Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, and other popular brands of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy and increased risks of a specific kind of birth defect of the heart.

Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark found taking the drugs can double the risks that a newborn will carry the heart defect. Earlier studies have also found that taking the drugs can cause more serious birth defects.

The research team studied about 500,000 children born in Denmark from 1996 to 2003 and found that when taken early in pregnancies, SSRIs doubled the risk of developing a specific heart defect affecting a piece of tissue that separates chambers of the heart.

Some brands of SSRI drugs fared worse than others. Prozac (fluoxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), and Celexa (citalopram) appeared to boost the risk more than other brands, as did taking a cocktail or more than one SSRI drug at a time, the study found. Zoloft more than tripled the heart defect risk and Celexa doubled it. Taking more than one SSRI resulted in a nearly five-times-higher risk of the heart defect.

Despite those alarming numbers, the researchers were quick to point out that the actual number of children born with the defects were very small. For about every 250 pregnant women who did not take SSRIs, one infant was born with the defect, while about two were born with the defect for every 250 women who took one SSRI, and four for every 200 mothers who took more than one, according to a Reuters news report.

The study’s findings appear today in the Online First issue of the medical journal BMJ.

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