Efeitos da utilização de antidepressivos no desenvolvimento fetal

Abstract

Anxiety and depression are common during pregnancy, affecting up to 8 and 12% of pregnant women, respectively. Therefore, the phenotypes in offspring may be affected throughout life. An increasing number of pregnant women receive antidepressant medications to treat these affective disorders, and the use of these medications in pregnancy is associated with long-term adverse risks for children, such as impaired neuromotor development, and the development of psychiatric disorders in adult life. Those effects are associated with the fact that these drugs cross a placental barrier, leaving the susceptible fetus during this highly plastic stage of development of the central nervous system. However, depression and anxiety disorders during pregnancy also predispose the offspring to developmental delays and an increased propensity to psychiatric disorders throughout life. For these reasons, the abandonment of treatment by the pregnant woman can be even more harmful to the fetus. The present work aims to carry out a narrative review of the risks and benefits of medication use by pregnant women and the subsequent effects on their offspring.