Topics: Women's Issues in Psychiatry

On May 28, 2008, The Food and Drug Administration announced a major revision in the labeling of the pregnancy and breast-feeding risk of drugs. The current labeling system was devised in 1979 and has been criticized over the years for being confusing and for failing to incorporate the most recent data.

Topics: Women's Issues in Psychiatry

Any discussion of psychiatric medications and breastfeeding must begin with the benefits of breastfeeding, which are substantial. While all psychotropic medications enter the breast milk, medication exposure for a nursing infant is much less than the exposure to a fetus during pregnancy.

Topics: Personality Disorders

In a double-blind trial, 314 outpatients with borderline personality disorder were randomly assigned to receive olanzapine or placebo. After 12 weeks of treatment, both groups showed significant improvements in borderline symptoms; however, there was no difference between olanzapine and placebo on the primary outcome measure.

Topics: Antidepressants

A recent trial examined the impact of augmenting antidepressant treatment with risperidone. Participants had not shown a treatment response after taking an antidepressant for at least five weeks, and were then randomly assigned to receive either risperidone or placebo augmentation along with the same dose of their antidepressant.

The original Epidemiological Catchment Area (ECA) study (based on interviews conducted in the 1980s) examined the prevalence of mental disorders among adults in five American cities. Taking a fresh look, researchers examined data from 6,832 adults who resided in the community in order to ascertain the relationship between headache and suicidality.

Topics: Women's Issues in Psychiatry

Dr. Hendrick, earlier this decade, most experts felt that SSRIs were relatively safe in pregnancy, but lately the pendulum seems to be swinging in the other direction. What do you consider to be the major risks of SSRIs in pregnancy?