Prozac and pregnancy

Pediatrics for Parents, May, 1996

Women who take certain medicines during their first trimester of pregnancy put their growing fetus at risk of developing malformations. And some drugs increase the chances of an early miscarriage. That's why it's best for pregnant women to avoid all but essential medicines.

Since there is no ethical way to conduct drug studies on pregnant women, most of the information about drug safety during pregnancy comes from retrospective studies.

In this study, doctors found almost 800 women who took Prozac early in pregnancy. When taking the drug they didn't know they were pregnant. The doctors found that the rate of miscarriages and birth defects for the women who Prozac was the same as for women who took no drugs early in pregnancy. This is good news for women who need the Prozac for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other problems. Most often they were taking the drug when they became pregnant.

Medical Tribune, 6/19/97, p. 19.