Pregnant mothers on anti-depressants at an increased risk of babies with high blood pressure

Pregnant mothers taking anti-depressants are more likely to give birth to children with an increased blood pressure in the lungs.

This may cause shortness of breath and difficulty breathing leading to heart faliure.

Research carried out at the Centre for Pharmacoepidemiology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm Sweden looked at anti-depressants fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, paroxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine and escitalopram.

1,618,255 births between 1996 and 2007 in the countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were analysed.

A total of 11,014 mothers used anti-depressants in late pregnancy with 33 babies (0.2%) born with persistent pulmonary hypertension.

And out of 17,053 mothers who used anti-depressant drugs in early pregnancy, 32 babies (less than 0.2%) were diagnosed with persistent pulmonary hypertension.

The research was published on the BMJ website.