The Use Of Bipolar Medication On Pregnant Women With Bipolar Symptoms.
Most doctors are on a dilemma especially in regards to pregnant women with symptoms of bipolar disorder, because of two things – possible harm of the drugs to the unborn baby and the risk of the episode coming back if the mother decides against taking her bipolar drugs. Some doctors have the difficult task of choosing between the baby and the mother.
Recent Studies
It has been published in the 2007 December American Journal of Psychiatry, that it is possible for bipolar returning due to short interval in pharmacotherapy. It has been warned by the study that pregnant women with the illness who stop taking their drugs may suffer severely when the bipolar symptoms return.
Colleagues at the Emory University and Harvard Medical School have observed a study of 89 bipolar women. These women were either pregnant or planning to get pregnant, of those studied more than 2/3s of those taking part stopped their drug medications for bipolar disorder during the six months period and 3 months after conception. The one third ( 27) continued on 12 weeks of their medications after they have conceived. From those who stopped their medication therapy, compared with women who did not discontinue taking their stabilizers 3 months after conception , the difference can be clearly seen.
Result of Discontinuing
In the study of those women who decided to stop their drug intake their chance of the symptoms recurring doubled. These pregnant women spent about 40% of their time with the either mania or depressive symptoms compared to less than 10% who kept with their medicines and acted normally.
The Mother or the Baby
According to Freeman, “By the time a woman discovers she is pregnant, the most serious period of risk for the baby fetus has frequently already passed.” Stopping medication at this time even for a short period can pose very grievous risk rather than act as a protection for the baby fetus.
Untreated Bipolar -Risks
Pregnant women with bipolar symptoms can go into prenatal care risks, with nutrition problem for both her and the fetus, if bipolar are not treated. Relapses often has occurred with episodes which can be both dangerous for the baby and mother. When not treated, alcohol consumption and tobacco use increases, mother and child attachment is disrupted, and great stress to the family. Behavioral and emotional difficulty risks has been seen with children with depressed mothers.
Mood stabilizers and it’s Risks
Most mood stabilizers pose high risks for birth deficiency. According to Food and Drug Administration classification, divalproex and lithium fall in the category D drugs for pregnancy which can cause both abnormalities and cardiovascular problems in the baby.
Finally
Bipolar patients may be required to continue their drug intake even when they are pregnant. Bipolar women do go into high risk when they are pregnant. We have given some light at least into why you should take bipolar drugs when you are pregnant, for it is a smaller risk to take as the end result.