Maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy and neonatal hypoglycemia: prospective cohort study

To evaluate associations between maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy and hypoglycemia in term neonates.

We conducted a prospective comparative cohort study of neonates of ≥37 weeks' gestation. Neonates whose mothers used antidepressants during pregnancy were compared with randomly selected cohort of neonates whose mothers did not use antidepressants. Blood glucose was measured at 24 ± 2 h after birth. Hypoglycemia was defined as blood glucose level <2.6 mmol/L. We needed 60 patients in each group to reject the null hypothesis.

Mean gestational ages were 39 vs. 40 weeks (p < 0.01) and birthweights were 3250 vs. 3360 g (p = 0.08) for antidepressant-exposed vs. -unexposed neonates. There were no significant differences between groups in odds of hypoglycemia (4/59: exposed vs. 2/61: unexposed; adjusted relative risk 1.73; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.37-8.92) or mean blood glucose levels.

Maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy was not associated with neonatal hypoglycemia at 24 h of age.