Analysis: SSRIs-fetal brain defect linked

Two new studies of anti-depressant use during pregnancy have found new evidence of a previously suspected link between anti-depressants and fetal heart defects. In addition, a troubling connection to additional problems with the fetus's developing skull and intestines have been identified for the first time.

The new research -- published in the June 28 New England Journal of Medicine -- includes a review of national data on birth defects by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control that found women who took a class of anti-depressants called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, had a 2.4 percent higher risk of having an infant with anencephaly, or no brain.

The study also linked SSRI use with craniosynostosis, when the skull forms too early so the brain cannot grow properly, and gastroschisis, when organs protrude from the navel.

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