GPs are still prescribing an antidepressant known to cause birth defects in unborn children to thousands of women every year, it emerged last night. Pills such as Seroxat may result in babies being born with malformed hearts if taken in the first few weeks of pregnancy – a time when many women are still unaware they may have conceived.
Since the horror of the Thalidomide scandal in the 1960s, pharmaceutical companies and medicines regulators have been acutely aware of the dangers drugs may pose to the unborn child.
Rebekah Beddoe was a young mum who went to her GP for help. A routine prescription for anti-depressants later and her life was spiraling out of control
While the researchers concluded that depression itself does not appear to increase the risk of obesity, they did find a link between obesity and the use of a specific type of antidepressant medications: the serotonin-reuptake-inhibiting antidepressants, or SSRIs.