Research suggests antidepressant risk to unborn babies

The risk posed by some popular antidepressants in early pregnancy is not worth taking for women with mild to moderate depression according to a NICE expert advisor. Professor Stephen Pilling says evidence suggests SSRIs, used by up to one in six women, can double the risk of a child being born with a heart defect. Currently, prescription guidelines for doctors only warn specifically against taking the SSRI, paroxetine, in early pregnancy but Prof Pilling says that advice is about to be updated. Carrying greater risks than smoking“The available evidence suggests that there is a risk associated with the SSRIs,” explained