| Depression during pregnancy & meds
I wanted to let everyone know something very interesting my Dr. told me at my last visit.
I've been on antidepressants for several years and my Dr. said it was OK for me to continue taking my Wellbutrin & Paxil medications through this pregnancy -- the same as I did with my last pregnancy, with no issues.
However, a month or so ago I started feeling familiar symptoms of depression -- high anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, crying at things that normally would not upset me. I increased my Paxil dose by half, and that seems to have taken care of it.
When I told my Dr. about this at my last visit, she said, that's fine -- during pregnancy your body fluids increase by 50%, so the 50% stronger dose of Paxil you are taking is essentially just maintaining the same strength of the drug in your bloodstream as the regular dose you were taking pre-pregnancy.
I thought this was interesting, as well as a bit disappointing, because if my doctor knew that, why wouldn't she have changed my prescription to a stronger dose earlier on in the pregnancy? (I am now 28 weeks.)
Anyhow, forewarned is forearmed, and since prenatal and postpartum depression can be really dangerous, I wanted to get this info out to any other expecting moms out there who are taking antidepressants. If you feel your depressive symptoms coming back, talk to your Dr. right away about whether you might need to modify your dosage.
- kcherrywa
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