SSRIs and heart defects in neonates

doi:10.1136/bmj.b4288

Published 21 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4288
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4288

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SSRIs and congenital defects

SSRIs and heart defects in neonates

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In a population study, Pedersen and colleagues found a twofoldincreased risk of septal heart defects after first trimesterexposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).¹The prevalence increased with citalopram or sertraline but notparoxetine or fluoxetine, and exposure to more than one typeof SSRI posed the greatest risk.

We compared the rate of non-syndromic, non-chromosomal congenitalheart malformations in newborn infants exposed to SSRIs andunexposed controls.² Every newborn infant with a persistentcardiac murmur (even mild) on the second or third day of lifewas examined by a paediatric cardiologist and had echocardiography.To our knowledge, this screening approach has not been usedin previous studies on SSRI exposure.

Echocardiography identified non-syndromic congenital heart defectsin 3.4% of exposed babies and in 1.6% of non-exposed controls(relative risk 2.17, 95% confidence interval 1.07 to 4.39).All heart defects were mild: ventricular septal defect, bicuspidaortic valve, . . . [Full text of this article]

Gil Klinger, deputy director¹, Paul Merlob²

¹ Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, Petah Tiqwa, 49202, Israel, ² Beilinson Teratology Information Service (BELTIS), Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tiqwa, 49100, Israel

gilkl@post.tau.ac.il

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