Published 21 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4286
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4286

Letters

SSRIs and congenital defects

Case registers in pregnancy?

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

Pedersen and colleagues did not find any evidence that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are teratogenic,¹ but did they find any other clinically significant findings for them such as their effects on birth weight, spontaneous abortion, or persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn?

Instead of retrospective cohort studies, might case registers for pregnancy and depression similar to prospective epilepsy and pregnancy registers² be set up in developed countries with robust monitoring systems by general practitioners and obstetricians? Such registers have achieved prominence with the advent of electronic case records and the technological capacity to derive anonymous databases from them.³

Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4286

¹ Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend CF31 1RQ

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Competing interests: None declared.

1. Pedersen LH, Henriksen TB, Vestergaard M, Olsen J, Bech BH. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in pregnancy and congenital malformations: population based cohort study. BMJ 2009;339:b3569. (23 September.)[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Morrow J, Russell A, Guthrie E, Parsons L, Robertson I, Waddell R, et al. Malformation risks of anti-epileptic drugs in pregnancy: a prospective study from the UK Epilepsy and Pregnancy Register. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2006;77:193-8.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3. Perera G, Soremekun M, Breen G, Stewart R. Case register: noble past, challenging present, exciting future. Br J Psychiatry 2009;195:191-3.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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Relevant Article

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in pregnancy and congenital malformations: population based cohort study

Lars Henning Pedersen, Tine Brink Henriksen, Mogens Vestergaard, Jørn Olsen, and Bodil Hammer Bech
BMJ 2009 339: b3569. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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