In Big Pharma’s ever-more greedy hunger, babies are nothing but collateral damage of the SSRI profit drones. Oops! Sorry your baby died, but he wasn’t targeted—just collateral damage. Were you using him as a shield?

by Heidi Stevenson

Researchers have provided clear evidence that SSRI antidepressant use during pregancy causes death to babies, both before and after birth. Yet, the authors draw the opposite conclusion, claiming that the drugs have no effect on stillbirths or how many babies die within the first year after birth!

This is typical pseudo science.

The study found that, of 1,633,877 singleton births, there were:

• 4.62 stillbirths per 1,000 among those mothers who’d filled SSRI prescriptions.
• 3.69 still births per 1,000 among those mothers who had not filled SSRI prescriptions.
• 2.54 neonatal deaths per 1,000 among those mothers who’d filled SSRI prescriptions.
• 2.21 neonatal deaths per 1,000 among those mothers had not filled SSRI prescriptions.
• 1.38 deaths per 1,000 post-neonatal babies (1-12 months of age) of mothers who’d filled SSRI prescriptions.
• 0.96 deaths per 1,000 post-neonatal babies (1-12 months of age) of mothers who had not filled SSRI prescriptions.

There were 1¼ times more stillbirths among women who used SSRI antidepressants, and 1.4 times more deaths in post-neonatal babies. Nevertheless, the authors concluded that the use of SSRIs has no effect on infant mortality! Here’s what the Journal of the American Medical Association says:

Yet in multivariate models, SSRI use was not associated with stillbirth, neonatal death, or postneonatal death. Estimates were further attenuated when stratified by previous hospitalization for psychiatric disease.

They explain their findings by claiming that it was the underlying psychiatric disorder that caused the deaths. They also acknowledge that:

Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors during pregnancy has been associated with congenital anomalies, neonatal withdrawal syndrome, and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn.

How can they possibly suggest that SSRIs do cause birth defects, SSRI withdrawal, and lung defects, yet not also cause fetal, neonatal, and post-neonatal deaths? It makes no sense.

Howeer, they offer the explanation that the underlying disorder was the actual cause of fetal and neonatal deaths. They state that by adjusting for the mother’s age, cigarette smoking, and the severity of the mother’s psychiatric disease, they could find no difference between those who’d taken SSRIs and those who didn’t.

What they don’t note, though, is that older women are more likely to have taken SSRIs for longer, that people who are on SSRIs are more likely to smoke, and that the more severe the depression, the longer and more heavily drugged she’ll have been. In other words, they deliberately adjusted for things that are also indicators for depression.

They also didn’t actually consider SSRI use. They considered only whether prescriptions were filled. So how many women filled prescriptions but didn’t take the drugs? From my own experience, I would suggest that it was quite a large percentage. It’s easier to simply fill a prescription and not take the drug than it is to argue with the doctor. Therefore, it’s likely that the number of stillbirths caused by SSRIs is even higher than this study found.

It should also be noted that the financer of the study was the Swedish Pharmacy Company, which has a strong interest in the conclusions drawn by this study.

The most important point to note here is that medical pseudo science has no interest in finding the truth. Therefore, do not assume that the conclusion of a study even represents what was found. Clearly, the anecdotal data we have about SSRI drugs causing fetal death is significantly more accurate than what now passes for medical science. Most of it is junk pseudo science, not legitimate attempts to find the true answer to questions.

Sources:

• Use of Anti-Depressants During Pregnancy Not Associated With Increased Risk of Stillbirth, Infant Death
• Antidepressants During Pregnancy: Safe?
• Antidepressants don’t increase pregnancy risk of stillbirth and death in newborn: study; Still controversy remains
• Anti-Depressants In Pregnancy Not Linked To Stillbirth And Infant Deaths