Sunday, February 18, 2007

Medication Pregnancy Registries

Information on effects of psychiatric drugs in pregnancy is very limited. This is because drugs are not tested on pregnant women. It would be seen as unethical to use pregnant women as guinea pigs. What is known about the effects of drugs in pregnancy comes almost entirely from anecdotal reports and clinical experience documented in various pregnancy registries.

Many medications have registries set up to collect data. Some registries require health care providers to do the enrollment while others allow the patient to enroll.

It's important if you do decide to take medicine during pregnancy to register with the registries. The results from these pregnancy registries help answer the common question "Is this medicine safe for my baby?"

Here are links to various registries for drugs used for bipolar disorder:

Lamictal:
http://pregnancyregistry.gsk.com/lamotrigene.html

Wellbutrin
http://pregnancyregistry.gsk.com/bupropion.html

North American AED (antiepileptic drug) Pregnancy Registry (covers Klonopin, Depakote, Neurontin, Lamictal, Ativan, Topamax and more. )
http://www.massgeneral.org/aed/

The AED registry is not just for women with epilepsy it is also for women taking AEDs to treat bipolar or other mood disorders.


FDA List of Other Pregnancy Registries
http://www.fda.gov/womens/registries/registries.html

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