Antidepressant Use During Early Pregnancy and the Risk of Congenital Anomalies. Issue 7 (6th June 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vasilakis‐Scaramozza, Catherine; Aschengrau, Ann; Cabral, Howard; Jick, Susan S.
• Is Part Of: Pharmacotherapy. Volume 33:Issue 7(2013)
• Page Start: 693
• Page End: 700
• Publication Date: 2013-06-06
• Subjects: Chemotherapy -- Periodicals; Pharmacology -- Periodicals; Drug Therapy -- Periodicals; Pharmacology -- Periodicals; 615.1
• DOI: 10.1002/phar.1211
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-0008

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="phar1211-abs-0001"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="phar1211-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Study Objective</title> <p>To estimate and compare the prevalence of congenital anomalies among the offspring of women exposed and not exposed to antidepressants during early pregnancy.</p> </sec> <sec id="phar1211-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Design</title> <p>Matched cohort study.</p> </sec> <sec id="phar1211-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Data Source</title> <p>United Kingdom's General Practice Research Database.</p> </sec> <sec id="phar1211-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Subjects</title> <p>Women exposed to tricyclic and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants during the first trimester of pregnancy (3276 women) and a sample of women matched in a 2:1 ratio who had no exposure to any antidepressant during the first trimester of pregnancy (6617 women).</p> </sec> <sec id="phar1211-sec-0005" sec-type="section"> <title>Measurements and Main Results</title> <p>The prevalence of any congenital anomaly was 31.0 (95% confidence interval [CI] 27.0–35.5) per 1000 pregnancies among women not exposed to antidepressants and 27.2 (95% CI 22.1–33.4) per 1000 pregnancies among women exposed to antidepressants. The relative risk of having a child with an anomaly in mothers who were exposed to tricyclics and SSRIs during the first trimester compared with mothers not exposed to these drugs was 0.9 (95% CI 0.7–1.1). The relative risks for any anomaly among women exposed to antidepressants were 0.9 (95% CI 0.6–1.2) for tricylics and 0.9 (95% CI 0.7–1.2) for SSRIs. We found no statistically significant, stable increases in the risk of specific anomaly subtypes among women exposed to these antidepressants; however, the number of exposed cases was small.</p> </sec> <sec id="phar1211-sec-0006" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusion</title> <p>Exposure to tricyclics and SSRIs during the first trimester of pregnancy was not associated with a statistically significant increased risk of congenital anomalies in the offspring of mothers exposed to these drugs.</p> </sec> </abstract>