As we talk about child birth we also find that there may be a link between some antidepressant medications and miscarriage. Now we know that there are medications that are not recommended or contraindicated in patients who are pregnant. But in cases where pregnancy is very early on and perhaps in cases where the patient doesn’t even know that they are pregnant, this can cause a problem for patients that are taking medications on a regular basis.
So we need to educate our patients about the medications they take. And if we have a patient who is a child-bearing age, we should advise them on the fact that if they are interested in having children and starting to have children, they should consult with their physician or with their nurse and find out about the medications they’re taking and are they going to be safe if they become pregnant before the pregnancy is discovered. So we need to find out about that.
I did find this article over at health.usnews.com so you can follow up on that particular article just finding out the resources. This is actually a Canadian study that looked at 5,000 women and found that certain antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors caused the pregnancy to have an increased risk of miscarriage. and certainly when someone has depression issues, we need to find ways to manage that but we may have to switch them to other medications or we may have to talk with those patients and find ways to refer them to perhaps additional behavioral therapies during the pregnancy and nursing period afterward until they are able to safely resume their medications.
And so these are things that we need to be prepared for when patients have a history of depression so be careful, make sure you’re asking that question of your patients if you are in the labor and delivery and maternity care arena. You certainly want to make sure that you are asking questions about history and including their psych history because we need to know if there’s other opportunities or options that can be opened up for these patients if they can no longer take their antidepressants.
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This article has been featured in the news segment of the Nursing Show episode Drowning, Near Drowning and Episode 136
