I know a lot of dopers are on various psychological meds and/or know people who are, and possibly some of these are pregnant or contemplating pregnancy, so I thought this might be of interest.
I thought this was considered common knowledge or at least assumed to consider seriously enough that my wife stopped her Paxil each time she was pregnant, the last time being nearly 10 years ago.
Yeah, I thought so too, I was off mine when we were TTC.
That said, there probably are situations where it is safer for the mother to continue her medications rather than not. While minimizing risk to the fetus and drugs for the mother is in general a good rule of thumb there are medical situations out there where the medications can’t or shouldn’t be interrupted for nine months.
As always, this would be something to discuss with a doctor in real life when appropriate.
Most antidepressants are pregnancy category C, meaning that animal studies have shown the possibility of adverse effects, but there are no reliable human studies, and the benefits may outweigh the risk. By point of comparison, hydrocortisone, tramadol, prednisone, Cipro, Sudafed, and dextromethorphan are also in this category.
Paxil is category D, which means that there is a positively identified risk to humans, but the benefits may still outweigh the risk. Tetracycline and Klonopin are also category D, and ibuprofen and full-dose aspirin are in this category in the third trimester.
Below those is category X, where the risks clearly outweigh the benefits. Statins, warfarin, Propecia, and of course thalidomide fall into this category.
Agreed.