Effect of Antidepressant Drugs on Gestaional Age and Risk of Low Birth Weight

Most women use antidepressants to overcome the depression that they undergo, because of various reasons. Earlier, it was considered that during pregnancy, women do not undergo depression, which is now proved false. Even during pregnancy, many women are taking antidepressants to arrest depression symptoms. With an automated database of 5 hospitals in the Ujjain city of Madhya Pradesh, India, a retrospective study was conducted. The study participants involved pregnant women from rural and pre-urban population of Ujjain district, who came for ante-natal checkup or for delivery, from January 2015 to January 2016. The association between LBW and the intake of antidepressant drugs during gestation period was also studied. Of the 200 cases of registered respondents, 142 (71%) had not taken antidepressants. Among the 142, 67 (47.1%) delivered low birth weight babies. However, 58 (28%) respondents who had taken antidepressant drugs Revotril, Serta, Lonazol, etc. delivered 47 (81%) low birth weight infants. The results were arrived at by correlating the data collected, and the study's conclusion is that the issues of low birth weight in infants can be controlled with the help of strategies such as educating the women on pregnancy planning, by educating the mother and the family members regarding the risk factors involved in using antidepressants as well as the outcome for both the mother and child or a preterm birth.