Women on antidepressants who stop taking their medication when they become pregnant risk relapsing into depression, according to a study published in the Feb. 1 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Long Island Newsday reports (Talan, Newsday, 1/31). The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, negates the commonly held belief that hormones produced during pregnancy protect women from depression (Johnson, AP/Long Island Newsday 1/31). Lee Cohen, director of Massachusetts General Hospital's Center for Women's Mental Health, and colleagues monitored 201 pregnant women between 1999 and 2003 with a history of depression (Reuters, 1/31). The women were on medications such as Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor and Paxil. Researchers found that 68% of the women who stopped taking antidepressants relapsed into depression during pregnancy. In addition, 26% of the women who continued taking their medication during pregnancy also became depressed (AP/Long Island Newsday, 1/31). When women take antidepressants during pregnancy, some infants can develop withdrawal syndromes, which include irritability and fluctuations in temperature. However, the most commonly-prescribed antidepressants have not been linked to birth defects, according to Newsday (Newsday, 1/31). FDA has cautioned that Paxil might be connected to fetal defects when taken during the first three months of pregnancy (AP/Long Island Newsday, 1/31). Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, suggests that instead of stopping their medication, pregnant women who take antidepressents should reduce the dosage (Reuters, 1/31).

NPR's "All Things Considered" on Tuesday reported on the study. The segment includes comments from Cohen; Nada Stotland, professor of psychiatry and obstetrics at Rush Medical College; and study participants (Aslanian, "All Things Considered," NPR, 1/31). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.