Obstetricians and psychiatrists are involved a couple of current FDA panel spreading misinformation concerning the potential harms of utilizing SSRIs throughout being pregnant and postpartum.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Ought to pregnant ladies and new moms take antidepressants? A current Meals and Drug Administration panel raised questions concerning the security of those medication. An estimated 6% to eight% of pregnant ladies take antidepressants generally known as SSRIs. Docs and psychiatrists treating these sufferers say the FDA panel misrepresented proof and unfold misinformation. NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee is right here to inform us extra. Rhitu, thanks.
RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: Joyful to be right here, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So I perceive you watched the FDA panel. What precisely did the panelists say?
CHATTERJEE: So the FDA commissioner, Marty Makary, opened the occasion, framing the entire dialogue round these so-called potential harms of a gaggle of tension and despair medication known as SSRIs, that are medicines like Zoloft and Lexapro. After which a majority of panelists, together with some psychiatrists, psychologists, a social work professor, cited research they are saying illustrate well being dangers to each mother and child. One panelist – Roger McFillin, a psychologist from Pennsylvania – recommended that ladies really feel coerced into taking these medicines and that despair is overdiagnosed in ladies.
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ROGER MCFILLIN: Is that as a result of this underlying psychological sickness that we’re attempting to manage for – one we do not take a look at for when there isn’t a goal testing – it simply is extra prevalent in ladies? Or are ladies simply naturally experiencing their feelings extra intensely? And people are presents. They are not signs of a illness.
CHATTERJEE: Now, to be clear, psychiatrists use a selected set of standards to diagnose despair and nervousness. And an individual has to have had 5 or extra of these standards for a despair analysis, and simply feeling overly emotional is not sufficient to be identified.
RASCOE: What are medical doctors and psychiatrists saying concerning the panel’s claims of harms brought on by SSRI use in being pregnant?
CHATTERJEE: So a number of well being care teams and organizations have launched statements in opposition to these claims and mentioned that they’re deceptive. Now, responding to that critique, Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the federal Well being Division, advised NPR in an e mail that the declare that the panel was, quote, “one-sided” is, quote, “insulting” to the panelists.
Now, I spoke with Dr. Christopher Zahn, chief of medical follow with the American School of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – or ACOG – one of many teams pushing again on a number of the panel’s claims. He defined why the research cited by most panelists had been what he described as poor-quality proof or nonevidence-based.
CHRISTOPHER ZAHN: So for those who’re evaluating a pregnant affected person who has taken an SSRI, the management group ought to be the pregnant affected person with psychological well being abnormalities who hasn’t taken an SSRI. And a part of the issue with a lot of these research – they do not use the correct management group. And in reality, it is type of like evaluating apples and oranges.
CHATTERJEE: You realize, Dr. Zahn advised me that well-controlled research do not discover this affiliation of SSRI use with these well being dangers that the panelists talked about. Now, the one danger that does present up is for newborns of mothers who take the medication within the third trimester. And the infants can have some withdrawal signs, however they resolve on their very own in a number of days. And in accordance with him and most others within the discipline, the underside line is these research which have adopted tons of of hundreds of girls discover that almost all SSRIs are protected for pregnant and postpartum ladies.
RASCOE: What concerning the people who find themselves simply attempting to resolve whether or not they need to take these medication once they’re pregnant or simply after giving delivery? What are the primary issues they should know?
CHATTERJEE: So firstly, Ayesha, is that there are dangers of not treating their signs at this stage of life. The detrimental penalties on the well being of each mother and child are very well-documented. Here is Dr. Kay Roussos-Ross. She’s an OBGYN on the College of Florida, and he or she was the one particular person on the FDA panel to spell these harms out.
KAY ROUSSOS-ROSS: When psychological well being circumstances go untreated, these ladies are much less prone to attend their prenatal care appointments, they usually’re extra doubtless to make use of substances throughout their being pregnant. They’re additionally extra prone to face further dangers reminiscent of preeclampsia and cesarean supply.
CHATTERJEE: And psychological sickness is a number one reason for maternal deaths on this nation, together with deaths as a result of suicide. Now, I ought to add that SSRIs aren’t the one possibility for treating nervousness and despair throughout and after being pregnant. For these with gentle to reasonable despair and nervousness, you recognize, discuss remedy is the primary and best choice. There’s additionally peer help. However for these with reasonable to extreme despair and people who are having bother accessing discuss remedy, which is a giant problem, then antidepressants are an possibility. Now, it will not be proper for everybody, however discuss all of this along with your physician. Weigh all of it in opposition to the danger of not treating your signs.
RASCOE: That is NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee. Thanks a lot.
CHATTERJEE: My pleasure.
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