Study Shows Taking Antidepressants In Pregnancy Associated With Raised Anxiety In 3 Year Olds

[Queen Boudica]

Another interesting piece of research....

http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/04/14/ije.dyv030.long

 

[shimmerz]

I like all of these things you are posting! Awareness!

 

[Queen Boudica]

Exactly. We need to be informed. This one I like it is not associated with any drug company.

 

[Lucycat]

So, the question is, are the children better off with un-medicated depressed mothers (to-be) or being anxious at 3 years old? The next research needs to compare these results with non- medicinal treatments for the depression.

It is good to see they are using decent numbers of participants in these studies.

 

[Queen Boudica]

Well, it is the question of pregnancy and taking antidepressants. Mothers could go onto antidepressants after pregnancy and that is fine and there is no mention that these mothers were or were not on antidepressants after pregnancy. It is the affect of the antidepressant on the foetus they are trying to measure and whether his has any long term outcomes. They also suggest these results can be seen in the children at 81 months of age. So it is not just at 3 years old.

And wouldn't you expect that children with mothers with treated depression be less anxious, and this study showed the mothers with children who were on antidepressants were more anxious, but this is due to taking the antidepressant in pregnancy.

 

[Lucycat]

Mothers could go onto antidepressants after pregnancy and that is fine

if they survive that long...

my point is would more damage be done to the child (foetus) if the mother (to-be) did not treat her depression ( during her pregnancy)? Would the pregnancy survive and would there be other negative outcomes due to neglect of self care etc.

 

[shimmerz]

would more damage be done to the child (foetus) if the mother (to-be) did not treat her depression

Really good question. Also, what about post partum depression? I had a friend that threw she and her baby in front of a train (she was a trained psychologist btw). Obviously, ideally it would be better to not ingest drugs, and there are other treatments for depression (although I can't speak to that as I don't suffer from depression myself). I don't want to minimize what a new mother goes through when she is depressed. Depression is a spectrum thing though right? Is it possible to start with other options? I feel like drugs are given immediately. Maybe that should be last line of defense?

 

[Queen Boudica]

The research also mentions this and the effect of cortisol in pregnancy crossing the placenta and affecting the foetus, and there is evidence that the child is affected.

No mention of the mothers breastfeeding and the effect of antidepressants? I do wonder about cortisol as well when you are breastfeeding, but then breastfeeding is supposed to lower cortisol levels in the mother?

 

[Queen Boudica]

I think there is also mention of prenatal cbt for the mothers. Yes you would think they would offer cbt for post natal depression as well, as I bet a lot of new mothers are worried about taking antidepressants if they are breast feeding.

 

[Queen Boudica]

Irony is they were flagging me for postnatal depression after my 3rd child. THink it had more to do with my abusive ex at the time and the fact I had undiagnosed complex trauma. Of course my eldest is super anxious, my second also anxiety, only the 3rd one seems to be super confident. But they are all ADHD. Whether this is caused by my anxiety in pregnancy, epigenetics which changed my genes due to my trauma or it was already in the genes anyway, or it was the DV environment and me anxious post natal I don't know. One thing I do know. I didn't take antidepressants in pregnancy. So can't be pinned to that!

 

[shimmerz]

This is a tough one. Cortisol is messed up due to PTSD too. Here is another bit of info on PTSD and fetus development. It speaks of the things that happen when the mother is affected (no drugs involved).
http://ptsdperspectives.org/the-lifetime-implications-of-fetal-ptsd/

 

[Queen Boudica]

Yes I have known about the effects of cortisol on the foetus. BUT there is also new evidence of epigenetics and genes being changed. So they have done studies on rats where the father was exposed to extreme stress but the babies and mother were not and were raised in unstressful environments. The offspring of the stressed males were more anxious than the ones who did not have stressed fathers.