Antidepressant Use During Early Pregnancy and Risk for Birth Defects

Previous studies have yielded conflicting results on the teratogenic effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor venlafaxine. In this multinational, population-based cohort study, investigators assessed maternal SSRI or venlafaxine use and risk for birth defects in 2.3 million infants born between 1996 and 2010 in Nordic countries. To adjust for potential confounding from family-related factors, sibling-controlled analyses were performed using a cohort of sibling pairs (2288 infants) who were discordant for both maternal SSRI or venlafaxine use and birth defects.

Among 37,000 infants with first-trimester exposure to SSRIs, 3.7% had major birth defects, and 1.5% had cardiac-re…