A recent publication by BBC News reports that “SSRIs can double the risk of a child being born with a heart defect.”

According to Prof. Stephen Pilling, an expert adviser to UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the risk increases from 2 in 100 (in the general population) to 4 in 100 in cases where the mother took an SSRI during early pregnancy. Prof. Pilling further warns that, “for women who are mild to moderately depressed… those risks, in most cases, are [not] worth taking”.

NICE’s expert adviser also informs that prescription guidelines “will… be re-written to take [into] account evidence that SSRI antidepressants, as a group, are linked to heart defects.”

Source: BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23005367