Pregnancy on antidepressants

Hi guys--

I think I've posted in another forum before about this a long time ago...but the husband and I are thinking about getting pregnant. I'm on a long list of antidepressants and some of them are no-nos during pregnancy, others are risky but not necessarily out of the question. My last attempt at getting off some of the meds wasn't very successful.

I was wondering if any of you could share your experiences with getting off meds (or staying on meds) during a pregnancy. If you don't feel comfortable talking about it on the forum, a PM would be great.

I guess what I'm especially interested in is what meds you stayed on that were considered more safe (I've done some research on this), how you coped off your meds (or usual meds) and just general advice.

Thanks so much!

Thank goodness, I had my children before I had my mental illness. But let's see what other folks say.

I have had the experience of weaning off of antidepressants, and it can be a miserable experience. But cold turkey is much worse. You and your doc will need to weigh the pros and cons with your health and your baby's health.

I took Lamictal. It was important to my OB to be on only one med, so I had to drop lexapro and abilify. It was manageable, but not as good as being on all my meds. Lamictal has good safety data because it has been used for many years and also for seizures so there have been many women who were not able to get off it for pregnancy. Abilify is a better med for me, but there wasn't as much research on it.

My advice would be to get multiple opinions from OB and pdocs. I ended up consulting 2 OB's and 3pdocs!!

Good luck!
EJ

I was on Prozac and Wellbutrin during two pregnancies.

There is a toll free hotline through the Hospital For Sick Children called Motherisk where you can get up-to-date research and info
The Hospital for Sick Children - Motherisk

Good luck!

I'm pregnant and came crashing off everything overnight, except for wellbutrin. I stayed on that a week then came off it as well. Physically I'm tired... my doctor said if I become very depressed he'll try me on Zoloft. In the meantime he must be worried, because he prescribed me to this medicine that is basically just food, it's like nutrition and from what I've read online it's something that you give a schizophrenic or majorly depressed person who isn't able to feed themselves properly. I don't feel suicidal or anything, but I don't feel great I wont lie. I'm terrified, and worried I shouldn't be a mom.

Thanks so much for all of your responses! I really appreciate the support and hearing about your experiences.

Just an update: my pdoc is switching out my Abilify for Latuda, which apparently is in pregnancy class B so is safer. I'm hoping that the Latuda works out, because the last time I tried to come off of the Abilify, it didn't turn out so well.