Mind-boggling to me that this isn’t a no-brainer. When my psychiatrist started asking me when I’d have children I told him it was ridiculous to consider having children while on drugs…I knew even 25 years ago that it was a high risk I wouldn’t impose on an innocent life. Never mind that the Risperdal also rendered me infertile (by nature of the fact that I did not menstruate for 15 years) Harmless drugs, NOT.
Pregnant women often go to great lengths to give their babies a healthy start in life. They quit smoking, skip the chardonnay, switch to decaf, forgo aspirin. They say no to swordfish and politely decline Brie.
Yet they rarely wean themselves from popular selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants likeProzac, Celexa and Zoloft despite an increasing number of studies linking prenatal exposure to birth defects, complications after birth and even developmental delays and autism.
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“If antidepressants made such a big difference, and women on them were eating better, sleeping better and taking better care of themselves, then one would expect to see better birth outcomes among the women who took medication than among similar women who did not,” said Barbara Mintzes, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health. “What’s striking is that there’s no research evidence showing that.”
On the contrary, she said, “when you look for it, all you find are harms.” (READ THE REST)
Psych drugs taken in utero can also cause serious withdrawal issues when the baby is born. Given the potential heinousness of withdrawal syndromes, the idea of it being the first experience an infant has upon being born is pretty horrifying. see: Newborn infants experience psychiatric drug withdrawal
More on Beyond Meds:
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Chemical imbalance myth takes a big public fall (no, antidepressants do NOT correct an imbalance of serotonin, nor do other psychiatric drugs correct anything at all)
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Antidepressant info
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