Pregnancy and antidepressants

[earthbrown]

MY girlfriend is pregnant.

Her doctor instructed her that she should stop taking xanax and prozac.

Well, her shrink, said "how dare your doctor mess with my recommendations and your mental health" and instructed her to start taking these medicines again.... dont know her dose of prozac, but she was prescribed like 6 xanax a day....

OBGYN says xanax and prozac can effect the baby adversly, but psyc says mothers mental health is more important than possible side effects...

She stopped taking both xanax and prozac 4 months ago when she learned she was pregnant, and has adjusted fairly well, she is willing to deal with the problems on her own without medication. But now her family is adding to the stress level and she is now longing for the effects of these 2 drugs that helped her cope with lots of bad shit since she was 12.

Not a medical opinion, BUT what are the real risks to an unborn baby when subjected to these drugs in the womb?

K

[Dr Steve]

MY girlfriend is pregnant.

Her doctor instructed her that she should stop taking xanax and prozac.

Well, her shrink, said "how dare your doctor mess with my recommendations and your mental health" and instructed her to start taking these medicines again.... dont know her dose of prozac, but she was prescribed like 6 xanax a day....

OBGYN says xanax and prozac can effect the baby adversly, but psyc says mothers mental health is more important than possible side effects...

She stopped taking both xanax and prozac 4 months ago when she learned she was pregnant, and has adjusted fairly well, she is willing to deal with the problems on her own without medication. But now her family is adding to the stress level and she is now longing for the effects of these 2 drugs that helped her cope with lots of bad shit since she was 12.

Not a medical opinion, BUT what are the real risks to an unborn baby when subjected to these drugs in the womb?

K

Ok, this is a tough one.

On the one hand, depressed pregnant women tend to deliver lower birth weight babies than non-depressed mothers.

On the other hand, fluoxetine (prozac) can theoretically reduce blood flow to the uterus, and cause other effects.

The jury is still out. The psychiatrists say that depression is a larger risk to the mother and baby than the drugs are to the baby. The OBGYN's are very conservative on this and would be happy if no one took ANY medication during pregnancy.

With regard to Xanax. it is labeled as pregnancy category D (A is perfectly safe, B is probably safe, C is might be unsafe, D is "there is evidence that it's unsafe"). The main risk to the baby, as I understand it, is in becoming habituated to the drug while the mom is taking it while pregnant...then at birth the baby isn't getting the drug any more and goes through a severe withdrawal syndrome.

I am not an OB, nor a psychiatrist. My personal opinion is that in each case the risks and benefits must be weighed. Obviously if a woman is suicidal and would die without the prozac, you give the prozac and hope for the best. If a woman can live without the meds safely and in reasonable comfort, by all means stop them, if recommended by your doctor. It's everyone that falls in between these two extremes that make this kind of thing really hard to figure out.

Good luck with the pregnancy; I've known a lot of people who took antidepressants during pregnancy and their kids turned out fine. See if your OB and Psych will talk to each other rather than just complaining about each other to the two of you. Maybe something constructive will come of it.

hope this helps, and congratulations.


your pal,


steve