Grant: Catalyst Grant: Post Market Drug Safety and Effectiveness

Women of reproductive age commonly use medications for depression and anxiety disorders and other mental health concerns, and the rate of use has increased during the last ten to fifteen years. Although medicine use is less frequent in pregnancy, the rate of use has been rising in parallel. This is despite limited knowledge of effects of many medicines on neonatal and infant health, and in some cases growing evidence of harm. This research project examines the rates and patterns of exposure to mental health drugs in pregnancy in British Columbia between 1996 and 2011. We will evaluate overall infant health outcomes, including total hospitalizations, serious illness and mortality during the first year of life in relation to prenatal exposure to antidepressants, antianxiety drugs and sleeping pills, stimulants used for attention deficit disorders, and newer antipsychotics. We are also examining two outcomes of antidepressant use that have been reported in the medical literature, but remain understudied: persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), and diagnoses of autism-related disorders in the first 2 and 5 years of life.