Antipsychotic drugs and safety concerns for breast-feeding infants

Tapan Parikh1, Dharmendra Goyal1, Jonathan R Scarff1

  • 1From the Rogosin Institute, New York, New York, the University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, and the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic, Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Southern Medical Journal
|November 4, 2014
PubMed

Antipsychotic drugs prescribed to treat psychiatric symptoms during the postpartum period are secreted into breast milk. Because breast-feeding is crucial to infant development, it is important to select a medication that poses the fewest adverse consequences. Aripiprazole, haloperidol, perphenazine, and trifluoperazine demonstrate no known developmental dangers. Olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone are cited as safe, although monitoring is recommended. Chlorpromazine and clozapine may induce developmental concerns. There are limited safety data for asenapine, fluphenazine, iloperidone, loxapine, lurasidone, paliperidone, pimozide, thioridazine, thiothixene, and ziprasidone. Clinicians should choose medications considered to be the safest and prescribe them at the lowest effective doses.

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