Discontinuing Antidepressants During Pregnancy Raises Psychiatric Risks

Pregnant patients who stopped taking their antidepressant medication during gestation were almost twice as apt to acquisition a intelligence wellness emergency compared with pregnant patients who continued taking their prescription, according to caller investigation presented coming astatine nan Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) 2026 Pregnancy Meeting™. 

Mental wellness disorders are nan largest contributor to maternal mortality in nan U.S. Pregnancy tin worsen existing depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders. Untreated aliases undertreated slump during pregnancy carries wellness risks, specified arsenic suicide, preterm birth, preeclampsia, and debased birth weight. Available information show that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant use during pregnancy is not associated pinch congenital anomalies, fetal maturation problems, aliases semipermanent developmental problems. 

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia examined de-identified records from Independence Blue Cross, a state-based backstage security database, of 3,983 patients who gave commencement betwixt January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2024. All patients were diagnosed with depression/anxiety before pregnancy and had an progressive medicine for an SSRI or an SNRI (serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) antidepressant three months before pregnancy. 

The study's researchers found no quality successful outpatient aliases emergency room visits for intelligence wellness indications anterior to pregnancy between patients who continued taking their antidepressant and those who did not. However, patients who stopped taking their antidepressant therapy during gestation had an almost two-fold higher consequence of having a intelligence wellness emergency (such arsenic termination risk, constituent overdose, and psychosis), pinch peaks successful nan first and ninth months of pregnancy. 

These findings, while not wholly astonishing to those who activity pinch pregnant patients who suffer from intelligence wellness conditions, are truthful important to see for maternal wellness policy. This activity underscores nan request to return pregnant patients' intelligence wellness earnestly and to connection nan afloat scope of curen options - including medications erstwhile clinically appropriate. Confronting nan maternal intelligence wellness situation is basal to reducing maternal morbidity and mortality successful nan United States." 

Kelly B. Zafman, MD, MSCR, lead researcher, maternal-fetal medicine chap astatine nan Hospital of nan University of Pennsylvania