Many researchers debate whether it is safe for women to take antidepressants during pregnancy. However, according to the Mayo Clinic, the risk of a child being affected by antidepressant use during pregnancy is fairly low.

Despite this argument, some antidepressant manufacturers have been taken to court by women claiming that taking antidepressants during pregnancy caused their children to be born with birth defects.

Three women who took the antidepressant medication Lexapro® while pregnant filed a lawsuit against Forest Laboratories on February 16, 2012, in the St. Louis Circuit Court in Missouri.

The lawsuits allege that Forest Laboratories knew and withheld information regarding possible birth defects caused by Lexapro. The plaintiffs claim they would not have taken the medication if they’d known about the potential birth defects.

As a result of the complications caused by Lexapro, one plaintiff’s daughter was born with spina bifida, another plaintiff’s daughter was born with club foot, and the last plaintiff’s daughter was born with cleft lip and cleft palate.

Lexapro is included in a class of antidepressants widely used throughout the United States known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).  Other SSRIs includes Zoloft®, Paxil®, Prozac®, and Celexa®.

Sources:

• Mayo Clinic Staff. (2012, January 10) Antidepressants: Safe during pregnancy? Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/antidepressants/DN00007
• A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia. (2010, September 4) Postpartum depression: Depression - postpartum; Postnatal depression. PubMed Health. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004481/