Authors' objectives: (1) To provide a descriptive account of psychotropic medication prescribed before pregnancy, during pregnancy and up to 15 months after delivery in UK primary care from 1995 to 2012; (2) to identify risk factors predictive of discontinuation and restarting of lithium (multiple manufacturers), anticonvulsant mood stabilisers and antipsychotic medication; (3) to examine the extent to which pregnancy is a determinant for discontinuation of psychotropic medication; (4) to examine prevalence of records suggestive of adverse mental health, deterioration or relapse 18 months before and during pregnancy, and up to 15 months after delivery; and (5) to estimate absolute and relative risks of adverse maternal and child outcomes of psychotropic treatment in pregnancy.

Authors' recommendations: Psychotropic medication is prescribed before, during and after pregnancy. Many women discontinue treatment before or during early pregnancy and then restart again in late pregnancy or after delivery. Our results support previous associations between valproate and adverse child outcomes but we found no evidence of such an association for antipsychotics.

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/projects/hta/113506

Year Published: 2016

URL for published report: http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hta/hta20230/#/abstract

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: England, United Kingdom

Organisation Name: NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme

Contact Address: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK

Contact Name: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk

Contact Email: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk

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