Hellobee Boards

Hmm... I don't know. I never considered anything unnatural as safe for consumption during pregnancy, regardless of what the current reports tell me. When I was pregnant, a filling in my tooth fell off, and since it wasn't a big hole, I requested not to use anesthetic when my dentist helped me to fill it back. And it fell off two times when I was pregnant! I also didn't touch coffee or wine at all, no sushi / raw food. It is better to be safe than sorry afterwards. You just can't trust whatever they report - 50 years ago they also said smoking is OK for the fetus.

The headline sounds scary but the context provided by the Times is what's important here, I think.

Well I suppose I'll be the odd one out, but had I not taken Lexapro during my last pregnancy I might be in a very different - and dire - place right now.

@ms.line: completely agree with the "correlation does not equal causation" thing. For example, the connection could be between depression and autism. What if mothers who have depression are more likely to have children with autism? It may not be about the medication at all and I think it could be dangerous to jump to conclusions too early.

@ladybee: Hugs<3

@ladybee: hugs. I've told you before I'm on Zoloft too and this study definitely stressed me out today, but I trust my mental health team in helping make the best decisions for my family including the child I already have. You are doing the same.

Healthy mama - physically and mentally - is what is most important. Depression/anxiety is a disease. It should be treated as such. Therefore, if medication is needed, use it. I wouldn't not use my asthma medicine if I needed it or insulin if I needed it.

@LovelyPlum: THIS!

Wow talk about a sensationalistic headline.

If I were to take this study alone into account, I would have to forgo having biological children, because taking an SSRI is the difference between me being unable to function (eat, sleep, work, etc) and me being a normal person (who works, goes to school, exercises, has positive relationships, etc.)

If this is valid I'll still take a less than 2% chance of my child having autism over the chance of never having a child at all.

I agree with those who said correlation does NOT equal causation. I haven't had the time to delve deeper into the study yet but I'll be interested to see what other factors they controlled for and the demographics.

@LovelyPlum: Thank you for that. I didn't take antidepressants but took a HUGE amount of antibiotics. I could have died, but the way I see it so could someone with any other illness that their doctor thinks they need treatment for... Damage from said illness and reducing the chance of recurrence is why I'm not bfing too... mommy guilt for all! (Tbh I don't feel guilty but this reminds me of some of the bf stuff floating around there...)

@mrbee: fair! I like that it raised the possibility of alternatives. Exercise and psychotherapy ARE good alternatives for some people, but for some, they're not enough. A rational, informed discussion is great, but I don't think throwing around numbers like 80% add to it at all.

@sorrycharlie: I agree, it's hard enough to get healthy people to exercise and attend regular doctor visits, let alone people who are depressed and anxious (and pregnant!).

Following on your point about the detrimental effects of headlines like this, I actually thought the NYT article was pretty good - it notes:

"Taking antidepressants, on the other hand, is an established treatment for very real psychiatric conditions, and suggesting that the medications are dangerous to fetuses — before all the observational evidence is in — could have disastrous results.

'I have seen people terminate pregnancies because they’re so psychiatrically ill and they’re afraid to be treated because they’re afraid that their baby is going to be exposed to a psychotropic agent,' Dr. Yonkers said.

What is more, 'untreated maternal depression is associated with a host of other complications,' wrote Bryan H. King, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington and the director of the Seattle Children’s Autism Center, in an editorial that accompanies this new study. Research has found these complications to include preterm birth, an increased risk of asthma in children and elevated cortisol levels in babies, which may have lifelong effects on those children’s brains."

@ms.line: that was one thing the psychiatrist said - she was like, honestly, the effects of a minimal dose of lexapro (I started on 10 mg) are far less than the effects of a constantly stressed, anxious and depressed mother with stress hormones bombarding the baby. really made me think!

@Mrs. Oatmeal: I thought the same exact thing re: vaccines. I hate sensational headlines that are detrimental to the article. clickbait, or whatever the word is? lol.

@IRunForFun: Sounds like controlling for other factors was difficult. I read this in the NY Times: "no matter how carefully researchers aim to evaluate each risk factor, it’s often extremely difficult to tease them apart — particularly in this case in which autism spectrum disorder and depression share some of the same environmental and genetic risk factors."

Reading more details this morning is making me more frustrated with the coverage. Even the study author cautioned against jumping to conclusions saying "we measured an association, it's not a cause." Of course that's buried two-thirds of the way into articles. Having previously worked in news, I can only imagine what led to the headlines. "Well, the possibility is still less than two percent, that doesn't sound very impressive or clickable. Hey, what if we say 87 percent increase?"

ETA: Wait. Maybe everyone else has already seen this, but I just read the study author "was a consultant for plaintiffs in the litigation involving antidepressants and birth defects." So that means he could have a financial interest in the findings. Hmmm...

@MrsSCB: Wow I actually hadn't seen that, but um yeah, I think there'd be a bit of a conflict of interest! I mean if the author could stand to profit from finding another reason antidepressants could be harmful...