Issues Related to Antipsychotic and Mood Stabilizer Treatment During Pregnancy and Lactation

摘要

Background: Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Schizophrenic Psychosis (SP) are seriouspsychiatric disorders, which often require chronic treatment using psychotropic drugs, such us antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. Considering that these are diseases that occur in childbearing age the use of these drugs during pregnancy and lactation raises several challenges. While there may be harmful effects from the administration of these drugs during these periods, the risk of decompensation of the psychiatric illness also exists with negative consequences for the mother and the baby. Aims: Summarize the actual available data on the risks of using psychotropic drugs during pregancy and lactation periods in women with BP and SP diagnosis. Methods: The authors performed a PubMed search, including 30 reviews studies and excluding those that not refer to BD and SP. Results and Conclusions: Due to ethical issues involved in clinical trials and other studies in pregnant women, the risks associated with antenatal exposure to these medications remains poorly studied. From the available literature it can be inferred that lithium, sodium valproate and carbamazepine are to be avoided during pregnancy.