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Antidepressants OK for pregnant women

From: C-upi@clari.net (UPI / ED SUSMAN)
Subject: Antidepressants OK for pregnant women
Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 7:23:47 PDT

SAN DIEGO, May 21 (UPI) -- University of Toronto researchers say (Wednesday) that giving anti-depressant medication to pregnant women won't affect the developing fetus' intelligence.

At the American Psychiatric Association meeting in San Diego, a second team of scientists finds that medication may be important for pregnant, depressed women, because one-third of them admit they have thoughts of suicide.

Dr. Irena Nulman of the Toronto Hospital Women's Health Program and colleagues find that exposure during pregnancy of antidepressant drugs does not appear to affect IQ, language, and behavioral development measured in preschool children.

The children of 80 pregnant women who received a tricyclate antidepressant and 55 who received the newer drug Prozac were compared to the children of 84 pregnant women who received no drugs during pregnancy.

The average IQ scores were nearly identical: 118 in the children of mothers who received a tricyclic antidepressant, 117 in those whose mothers received Prozac, and 115 in the children whose mothers consisted of the control group.

Nulman says, ``Similarly, children in the three groups did not differ in their scores on temperament, mood, arousal, activity, distractibility or behavioral problems.''

While folklore has created a myth of the glowing, euphoric pregnant woman, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital find that one-third of 42 depressed, pregnant women expressed suicidal thoughts in written tests -- but not in face-to-face interviews with doctors.

Jennie Bailey, a researcher with the Harvard-affiliated hospital in Boston, says most of the women in the study were married, and came from higher economical classes.