Antidepressants Medications Risks - Increases chance of Miscarriage

Scientists at University of Montreal report Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that women taking the drugs most often prescribed to treat depression and anxiety - including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and the older tricyclics — had a significantly higher risk of miscarriage than a matched control group of women who did not take antidepressants. The study is the first of its kind to analyze which antidepressants and which doses are most likely to be associated with spontaneous abortion. Led by Anick Bérard at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Montreal, the research team also documented that two SSRIs, paroxetine (Paxil) and venlafaxine (Effexor), are associated with the greatest risk.

Overall, the risk was greatest among women who combined the use of two or more classes of antidepressants. When researchers looked at the small amounts of data on patients using specific drugs, they found that those taking paroxetine alone had a 75% higher rate of miscarriage than women without depression, while women taking venlafaxine had a more than doubled risk. "To my knowledge, we are the only ones to go further and look at which class [of antidepressant], and which dosage increased the risk most," says Bérard.