[identity profile] i-square-jere.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] vaginapagina
Hey friends!

So my husband and I have had plans for awhile to conceive this fall. He'll be starting graduate school, I'll have a year off until I start my grad program next fall, and we'll have health insurance through school. And we've both wanted kids for a while, and we definitely feel emotionally and financially prepared for a tiny human.

I'm also taking an SSRI, 10 mg Celexa q.d., and I have been for about a year. I remember when I went to get a rx renewal back in February, I mentioned to my doctor that we were interested in getting pregnant before the end of the year. She told me about a recent study that looked at a correlation between SSRI use within a year of delivery and autism, and said that the results were fairly significant. I kind of took it with a grain of salt (because seriously everything causes autism, amirite?), and didn't really find anything conclusive. But it still kind of freaked me out that my doctor was concerned enough to tell me about it.

I'm usually pretty level-headed about things, and am pretty good at deciphering actual statistical data from news extrapolation, but I can't help but worry about this. Also, since neither one of us are in school right now, we don't have access to a journal database, which is kind of what I rely on to see original studies.

So does anyone know anything more about the SSRI/pregnancy/autism connection? How much should I trust my doctor on this? I could get off of my Celexa, but I've worked on tapering off before and it seems like 10 mg is the lowest dose I can take while still keeping my head above water, and I'm hesitant to get off of it completely because I think I owe it to my future progeny to offer them a mentally healthy mom.

Thanks!

Date: 2012-07-20 03:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinksgirl.livejournal.com
So, here's the deal--you probably aren't going to get a definitive answer to this, at least not any time soon. The evidence on pregnancy and SSRIs is, at best, mixed. Some evidence shows that SSRIs have a minimal effect on the fetus; some show a more significant effect.

Celexa is a pregnancy category C, which means, in short, that it isn't ideal in pregnancy. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that every woman should stop taking it when she gets pregnant! Mental health plays a HUGE part in maternal-fetal outcomes. So, it's really important that you consider the benefit that taking Cymbalta has on your life--and that isn't something that anyone here can evaluate for you (obviously, and I know you aren't asking us to!).

Zoloft is the only SSRI FDA-approved for safe use in pregnancy (and breastfeeding). Because the evidence is so insufficient, I think you could poll doctors and midwives and STILL not get a consensus about what is safe, you know? I searched EBSCO, and I found a study that discusses hyperserotonemia and its hypothesized link to neurological functioning in rats, but that's pretty much all that I found when searching "SSRI and PREGNANCY and AUTISM".

Long story short? I don't know that the evidence is compelling enough to drop the Celexa. But it might be worth considering, if the potential risks are greater than the potential benefits during pregnancy. Do you think it would be worthwhile to get another opinion from another doctor or nurse practitioner?

Date: 2012-07-24 09:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sweetchild92.livejournal.com
Wow, I had no idea Zoloft was FDA approved for that!

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