Antidepressant risk in pregnancy

The risk posed by some popular antidepressants in early pregnancy is not worth taking for women with mild to moderate depression, an expert has warned.

Professor Stephen Pilling says evidence suggests SSRIs can double the risk of a child being born with a heart defect.

The drugs have been used by up to one in six women of child-bearing age.

A manufacturer contacted by the BBC denies any link to major foetal malformations.

Panorama has spoken to eight mothers who had babies born with serious heart defects after taking a commonly used SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressant while pregnant. Currently, prescription guidelines for doctors only warn specifically against taking the SSRI, paroxetine, in early pregnancy.

But Prof Pilling, of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), says the guidance will now be re-written to take in to account evidence that the SSRI antidepressants, as a group, are linked to heart defects.

He says the risk of any baby being born with a heart defect is around two in 100; but the evidence suggests if the mother took an SSRI in early pregnancy that risk increases to around four in 100.

He says that women not suffering from the most severe depression who become pregnant whilst taking the drug are taking an unnecessary risk.

Lundbeck, the manufacturer of Citalopram, says a recent review of scientific literature concluded that the drug "does not appear to be associated with an increased risk of major foetal malformations".

"The decision not to prescribe anti-depressants to a woman who is depressed... may generate greater risks to the woman and her foetus than the risks of exposure to the medication."

Panorama: The Truth about Pills and Pregnancy is broadcast on BBC One on Monday 24 June at 8:30pm.