Antidepressants and pregnancy: permitted antidepressants, effects on the woman's body and fetus, possible consequences and gynecologist's appointments

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

According to sociologists, the level of stress among the population and depressive moods in society are increasing every year. This negative dynamics is more common among women, and it does not bypass expectant mothers who, being in a position, use strong sedatives. Pregnancy and antidepressants, are they compatible? In today's article, we will try to figure out how justified the use of psychotropic drugs by women who are carrying a child, and whether there is an alternative to this type of treatment. And also learn about when you can plan a pregnancy after antidepressants.

Acquired and ongoing depression: difference and features

Mental disorders have happened to every person. We are not necessarily talking about serious diseases like schizophrenia or manic syndrome, but even insomnia, panic attacks, anxiety, depressed moodand irritability can be symptoms of diseases of the nervous system. At the same time, there are people with a stable psycho-emotional state who cope with stress and shock quite simply, and some require the help of specialists and drug treatment.

The hardest thing is for those with chronic depression. Like any disease, it has an active phase and remission, which can be quite long - years and even decades. However, the slightest emotional shock can disturb a person's peace and cause a new round of illness. Women during pregnancy are no exception. And antidepressants in such cases are seen as a salvation.

But you need to understand that the new provision does not allow the use of most medications - this can provoke the development of malformations in the fetus. Only a doctor will correctly explain which antidepressants can be used during pregnancy. If we are talking about a disease of mild severity, it will be quite possible to do without the use of drugs, in this case, you can limit yourself to several courses of psychotherapy.

Why does depression occur during pregnancy?

Which antidepressants during pregnancy will not harm the he alth of the mother and child, we will tell below, now we will try to highlight the main causes of mental disorders in expectant mothers.

In the first trimester, serious hormonal changes in the body can contribute to this. Because ofthe hormonal background adjusts the work of all systems for bearing a fetus, girls may not feel the way they usually do. They have increased tearfulness and irritability, many develop drowsiness, fatigue, mood swings. It does not add joy and toxicosis, which often torments pregnant women so much that it does not allow them to live in their usual way.

At this stage, it is not advisable to use antidepressants during pregnancy - less drastic methods can be used to relieve anxiety and insomnia.

Often the root of the problem lies precisely in deep psychological experiences, the causes of which, for example, are as follows:

• unwanted child;
• the mother has no relatives and friends who will support her after childbirth;
• she has a difficult financial situation, significant financial obligations;
• she recently experienced a strong shock, stress.

In such cases, it is important to try to solve existing problems or outline ways out of difficult situations, then the depression associated with them will disappear.

In the future, the negative psycho-emotional state of the expectant mother may be associated with the expectation of an early birth. In the second and last trimesters, women are often burdened by the realization that the child is about to be born, and they are not ready for this, many are afraid of the birth itself and the physical pain. And also a serious test for them are changes in physiology - swelling, shortness of breath, pain in the back, etc. You can overcome such excitement, even without using antidepressants. Induring pregnancy, you need to try to clarify as much as possible everything unknown that is connected with childbirth, mentally set yourself up for some difficulties that will inevitably arise in the future and, of course, not take on too much responsibility.

How to deal with depression during pregnancy?

Light forms, of course, you can try to overcome on your own. But if depression has captured the expectant mother, she does not leave a feeling of anxiety and fear, she cannot sleep normally, eat, gets irritated over trifles, cries incessantly, which means she needs the help of a specialist. Depression is not just a spleen or a sudden surge of sadness, it is a complex mental state, a disease that requires long-term and serious treatment. However, they should be de alt with by a specialist - a qualified psychiatrist or a psychologist who will correctly diagnose and develop a course of treatment. The latter may include psychotherapy sessions and taking special drugs - these are safe antidepressants during pregnancy that will help relieve the acute phase of the disease and enter the woman into a normal emotional state.

How does depression affect fetal development?

If a mother refuses help and is depressed throughout the entire pregnancy, she runs the risk of giving birth to a baby prematurely or provoking intrauterine growth retardation. Of course, drug treatment also has its negative consequences, but, as practice shows, sometimes it does not have such a negative effect.on the condition of the child, as a complete rejection of drugs. Thus, it can be said that, with the right approach, antidepressants and pregnancy are quite compatible.

Studies conducted by scientists at the New York State Institute of Psychiatry showed that children whose mothers suffered from depression while pregnant and did not take antidepressants, did not undergo a single course of psychotherapy, after birth had a serious risk of psychomotor development disorders.

Most of them were sent to intensive care units immediately after birth, because they had a serious underweight, oxygen starvation, neurological problems.

Antidepressants during pregnancy: which ones can you use?

As a rule, women prone to various mental disorders are aware of their problems and, in case of depression, immediately begin to take the medications that the doctor prescribed for them earlier. Fortunately, it is quite problematic to buy serious psychotropic drugs without a prescription, while various “sedative” pills and potions are sold in any pharmacy without a prescription. You need to understand that self-medication with sedative drugs can also adversely affect the he alth of the baby.

Specialists identify a number of acceptable products that practically do not cross the placenta and have minimal impact on the baby. Antidepressants allowed during pregnancy are included in the group of SSRIs (selective reuptake inhibitorsserotonin) and tricyclic drugs. Western scientists have already conducted their large-scale studies on animals and humans, they note that when taking these drugs there is a risk of developing cognitive disorders in the fetus, but still classify them as conditionally safe. So, allowed antidepressants during pregnancy (list):

• Fevarin;
• "Triftazin";
• "Amitriptyline";
• "Sertraline";
• Citalopram;
• "Fluoxetine".

Many domestic psychiatrists convince their patients that, acting on the baby in utero, these drugs subsequently do not affect his behavior and well-being after birth, although in the annotations to most of these drugs, pregnancy and breastfeeding are a contraindication. Nevertheless, they are also actively used abroad in practice. Proof of this is the numerous medical reviews. Doctors have to prescribe antidepressants during pregnancy more often than they would like, but most American and European psychiatrists are convinced that the situation, left to chance, can be even more dangerous than the use of psychotropic drugs in the treatment of pregnant women.

Antidepressants with negative effects

On the net, on various women's forums, you can often see girls' comments, for example: “I take antidepressants during pregnancy and nothing, everything is fine, the baby is developing normally” or “My friend took psychotropic substances, her child was born with abnormalities . Reading similarsites, it is important to understand that self-medication during gestation is the worst evil that a mother unknowingly inflicts on her baby. Only a doctor with sufficient experience and qualifications can prescribe antidepressants during pregnancy. Is it possible to take this or that drug, it is up to the specialist to decide.

Medicine does not stand still, work is constantly being done to create the latest drugs, as well as testing existing ones in order to identify their harm or benefit. In the course of such studies, antidepressants were identified that affect the fetus extremely negatively. These include many drugs from the SSRI group. They have the greatest influence on the area of the amygdala in the brain, as well as on those parts of it that are responsible for the emotional state of a person.

Antidepressants and pregnancy are not the most successful tandem, because taking them, the mother risks giving birth to a child with autism, neurological problems and lagging motor activity. Proof of this may be studies conducted by several educational institutions at once - the Columbia University Medical Center (New York) and the University of Montreal (Canada, Montreal). Specialists of scientific laboratories located at these universities claim that antidepressants change the personality of the child, and this is an irrefutable fact. Another thing is that they cannot judge what consequences they cause in the long run. Among the most studied and already banned drugsappear: "Paroxetine" and "Paxil". And drugs with unproven positive effects: Venlafaxine, Duloxetine, Milnacipran, Simb alta, Ixel.

Pros of using antidepressants

First of all, you need to understand that in a depressed state, a woman will not be able to bear a child easily. Perhaps he will be born on time and absolutely he althy, but this will happen at the cost of the he alth of the mother's body. The fetus will suck out of it all the substances it needs for itself, devastate the mother both physically and mentally. A tired woman who also suffers from depression will simply not be able to adequately treat her baby after childbirth, because postpartum depression can be added to the current disease.

Therefore, mother needs to be treated, not allowing her to spoil the joy of motherhood with her own hands. This position is supported by many women, speaking in the reviews. Pregnancy on antidepressants, in their opinion, is much easier than without them, because the drugs make it possible to rest normally, eat, enjoy life and your position, and not get hung up on the problems and difficulties of bearing a child. They also help to overcome anxiety, fight dysphoria, normalize the production of serotonin.

Harm of psychotropic drugs during pregnancy

Surely everyone understands that the biggest danger from taking antidepressants during pregnancy lies in their negative impact on the fetus. Medicines, albeit in a small dose, but still penetrate the placenta, so they cause in a smallcertain changes in the body. First of all, they concern the brain.

Whether a woman suffers from depression without taking any action, or takes antidepressants, unfortunately, in both cases, children can be born with some problems. Moreover, the fact of the influence of antidepressants on the emotional state of the child has been proven. They provoke an increase in the volume of shares in the areas of the brain responsible for emotions, mainly fear and joy. And also scientific studies have shown that children whose mothers took psychotropic substances in the first days after birth are particularly capricious, tearful, they suck and sleep poorly. Over time, they pass it, literally a few days after giving birth, but you need to prepare for this.

Some doctors have linked women taking antidepressants with autism in their children. However, there is actually no reliable evidence why this disease occurs in babies, and it is impossible to argue that it is provoked by psychotropic drugs.

Planning pregnancy during depression

At gynecological appointments, expectant mothers often ask the following question: “I take antidepressants. Can they continue to be taken during pregnancy? The decision to cancel, continue or correct treatment should be made by specialists. A female doctor will evaluate all the pros and cons, talk about the consequences, help you choose the safest drug for both the fetus and the mother, and the psychotherapist will monitor the course of depression in his patient, preventing the occurrence of complications of the disease.

BThe vast majority of doctors recommend planning a conception during the remission period, that is, when a woman feels good and nothing bothers her. More concerned about another question - about when you can get pregnant after antidepressants. And also, will the fetus develop normally if the course of treatment ended two to three weeks ago? The minimum period between the last pill drunk and conception is a day. This is the time it takes for the drug to be removed from the bloodstream.

Sometimes women worry that the psychotropic drugs they have previously taken may affect the he alth of their children, even if the treatment ended before pregnancy. Experts say that retroactively, antidepressants cannot affect the baby in any way, they do not cause a mutagenic effect, and therefore, if the disease is currently in a stable stage of remission, then this is the most favorable time for conceiving a child.

An alternative to antidepressants during pregnancy

Treatment of depression is not limited to taking tranquilizers and psychotropic drugs. Psychotherapy plays an important role in alleviating the condition of patients. Sessions of communication with a doctor in the acute phase should be very frequent and fairly long - two to three times during an hour session. At the same time, it is important that a trusting relationship be established between the doctor and the woman for fruitful work. If a patient fails to open up to a professional, they will never find the root cause of her illness.

Besides psychotherapy, treatmentincludes creating a he althy environment for the pregnant woman. There should be no place for negative factors in her life, she needs to minimize stressful situations.

And also a he althy lifestyle has a positive effect on emotional he alth. This implies the following points:

• organization of the correct mode of sleep and wakefulness, elimination of overwork;
• socialization and communication with people;
• sports;
• outdoor walks;
• search for interesting hobbies for a woman, choice of a hobby;
• avoiding alcohol, drugs.

The support of loved ones and relatives, friends and relatives plays a very important role in this matter. They should surround the woman with understanding and care, so it will be easier for her to cope with depression.

As a result, a pregnant woman needs to learn to accept her position, in which she is, and the circumstances that have developed around her. And also love yourself and take care of your he alth, at least for the sake of your unborn child. After all, only a mother is able to protect and protect her baby from dangers. The main thing is to keep calm and stay in a good mood, and then everything will definitely work out.