Antidepressants Cause Major Increase in Miscarriages

This study comes on the heels of ones showing these drugs cause birth defects. But even now, regulatory agencies aren't taking action.

by Heidi Stevenson

24 June 2010

Medical powers-that-be are pressing to identify women "at risk" of depression during pregnancy—likely to push them into taking anti- depressants. Now, a study has shown that SSRI and SNRI antidepressants can increase miscarriages by 68 percent. These drugs have also been associated with birth defects. Now, that is truly depressing.

A study published in the online edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported a 68% increase in miscarriages in women who take modern antidepressants. Paroxetine, the SSRI sold as Paxil or Seroxat, and venlafaxine, the SNRI sold as Effexor, were especially risky, and taking more than one antidepressant was also particularly dangerous.

As previously documented in Babies of Women Taking Antidepressants Born With Deformities, Dr. Anick Bérard, PhD, one of the study's authors, has also noted that antidepressants have been associated with birth defects. It shouldn't, of course, come as any surprise that an agent guilty of causing birth defects would also result in miscarriages.

Overall, antidepressant use was found to increase the risk of miscarriage by 68%. Paroxetine increased the risk by 75% and venlafaxine more than doubled the risk to a 110% greater chance of spontaneous abortion.

In comparison, the increased risk of miscarriage due to untreated depression is 19 percent.

It's obvious that increased miscarriage risks of 68 percent, 75 percent, and 110% with SSRI and SNRI treatment make a 19 percent increase in untreated pregnancy depression pale by comparison.

Government Stances on Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy

The use of SSRI and SNRI drugs is not prohibited during pregnancy. In the US, the FDA recommends against their use during pregnancy, but nothing more. In the UK, the Royal College of Psychiatrists is ambivalent, saying that there's some concern about antidepressant use in pregnancy, but the organization doesn't take a negative stance. The NHS has taken a similar stance.

The official governmental agencies have taken an attitude that demonstrates nothing less than their enthrallment to Big Pharma. Rather than asking whether it makes sense to allow the ingestion of chemicals during pregnancy, with unknown effects on the developing fetus, the approach has been to presume that there's no risk.

In the meantime, how many miscarriages happen? Worse, how many babies are born with abnormalities that will damage their right to full and healthy lives? We'll likely never get the answers to those questions.

What is clear, though, is that elected officials and the bureaucracies they oversee do not see themselves as beholden to the people. Their concerns are directed towards a different master. Their interest is not directed towards the survival and welfare of future generations. If it were, then new chemicals that make big profits for Big Pharma wouldn't receive the benefit of the doubt. Babies would.

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