Are Antipsychotic Drugs “Safe” During Pregnancy?

During the past decade, use of antipsychotic drugs during pregnancy has doubled, with conflicting reports on their teratogenic risks. Using Medicaid records from 2000 through 2010 on 1.36 million pregnancies (mean maternal age, 24), investigators compared women who, during their first trimester, had filled at least one prescription for an atypical or typical antipsychotic drug (0.69% and 0.05% of the cohort, respectively) with women who had not taken an antipsychotic. The study excluded women with first-trimester exposure to known teratogens and pregnancies with a chromosomal abnormality.

After adjustment for >250 potentially confounding variables, neither typical nor atypical antipsychotic drugs, as a group, were associated with significant…