Large Decrease Seen in Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy

MONDAY, Feb. 3, 2025 (HealthDay News) — There has been a large decrease in antidepressant use during pregnancy and no corresponding increase in psychotherapy claims, according to a research letter published online Jan. 30 in JAMA Network Open.

Claire Boone, Ph.D., from McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues measured antidepressant medication fills and psychotherapy claims of women and their spouses for two years before and two years after the birth of a child (2009 to 2019). The study included 385,731 women.

The researchers found that 4.3 and 2.2 percent of women filled an antidepressant prescription in the year before pregnancy and during pregnancy, respectively, a reduction of 48.8 percent. No similar change was seen in antidepressant use among 217,877 spouses, indicating that this behavior was not associated with co-occurring changes in the couple”s life. During pregnancy, there was a slight decrease in psychotherapy claims related to a trend line. Women”s mean medication fills returned to the prepregnancy trend line within one month of giving birth.

“We documented a large decrease in antidepressant use without an accompanying increase in psychotherapy during pregnancy,” the authors write. “These findings, coupled with evidence of mental health challenges during and after pregnancy, suggest the need for increased focus on and discussion about mental health treatments by pregnant women and their clinicians.”

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