The Effects of Neurologic and Psychiatric Drugs on the Fetus and Nursing Infant

A concise guide for physicians and other health care practitioners to the potential teratogenic risks of approximately 225 drugs prescribed for neurologic and psychiatric disorders. It offers an approach to prescribing medicines for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and the attendant risks.

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Counselling a pregnant woman about possible effects of an environmental or drug exposure on her developing embryo or foetus is an important component of her medical care. This is a concise guide for physicians and other health care practitioners to the potential teratogenic risks of the approximately 225 drugs prescribed for neurologic and psychiatric disorders. It describes an approach to prescribing medicines for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and the attendant risks. Each agent summary presents information from the published data and then rates the risk of teratogenic effects: none, likely, minimal, small, moderate, high or undetermined.