Pregnant, anxious, upping dose of ADs?

[firemansam]

Does anyone have any experience of being on ADs in pregnancy and them losing their effectiveness, and having to up the dose? And did it help?

I am terribly anxious, full of panic, worried about it affecting the baby. Any positive stories please? Thank you

Didn't want your post to go unanswered but no real advice tbh.

I am on fluoxetine and 36 weeks pregnant. I stopped at 9 weeks though and have just started on it again.

Is your GP sympathetic? lots of ADs are ok to take whilst pregnant.

I was on 40mg of citalopram which was increased to 60mg at about 5 months. I got a lot better on the higher dose and stayed well after the birth too. It makes sense that as you get bigger the concentration of AD in your blood drops. You get about one third more blood during your pregnancy, so to get the same effect you have to take more AD.

DD is two now and very healthy (bar chicken pox) and developing normally. She had a short stay in NICU at birth, though that may or may not be related to the citalopram. There are no lasting effects.

Which AD are you on, I can look up some more detailed information for you. If you stay mentally well during and after your pregnancy it is much better for your childs development. This has to be weighed up with any risk to the fetus from ADs. No drug is risk free, but because it is impossible to do a double blind trial on pregnant women, drugs cant be licensed for pregnant women. This does not mean that there is a significant risk from them though.