Pregnancy and SSRI's

[i-square-jere.livejournal.com]

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!

Comments

(frozen)

[kimie-catclaw.livejournal.com]

Always? What about simple infections, like UTIs, that can go bad very quickly? They're easily treated with antibiotics (pills!) which are not harmful to the fetus, whereas an untreated UTI can kill you. It's not like it's a test of wills, not to get a UTI or a sinus infection, or dealing with mental illness, as the OP is.

(frozen)

[slinksgirl.livejournal.com]

Or anti-nausea medication that allows women to get enough nutrition for the fetus to grow? Or even the prescribed/ordered medications that HELP the fetus in situations of precarious birth outcomes, like steroids and magnesium in preterm labor?

(frozen)

[kimie-catclaw.livejournal.com]

Or prenatal vitamins? Heartburn meds? I'd have been miserable without Zantac when I was pregnant, and the heartburn I had was because of my pregnancy. Or people with gestational diabetes that can't be controlled entirely through diet?