Antidepressant Use in Pregnancy

Depression is common among women of reproductive age, affecting an estimated one in ten pregnancies. To evaluate whether antidepressant use during pregnancy increases risks for preterm birth, low birth weight, small-for-gestational-age (SGA) delivery, or low Apgar score, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of individual-level data collected from more than 400,000 women who participated in 27 studies.

Among ≈375,000 participants with available mental health data, 7.6% had symptoms or a clinical diagnosis of depression. And among ≈118,000 participants with data available on antidepressant use, 2.2% reported antidepressant use during pregnancy.

Regardless of whether or not antidepressants were used, depression during pregnancy was significantl…