Psychotropic drugs

Women of childbearing age are often affected with depressive, psychotic or other psychiatric disorders, requiring medication during pregnancy. Psychopharmaceuticals during pregnancy constitute both a potential risk to the developing fetus as well as a possible benefit through improvement of the disease state. According to the current knowledge there is no strong teratogen among the classical psychoparmaceuticals. The risk of the mood stabilizer lithium has been confirmed but was overestimated. However, many drugs used in psychiatry are insufficiently tested with respect to their effects on the fetus. Valproic acid should be avoided during pregnancy due to its established physical and neurobehavioral teratogenicity, and it is not a drug of first choice for the management of women of childbearing age. This chapter provides a detailed overview on SSRI and the other antidepressants, on antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anxiolytics, hypnotics and, among others, on restless legs treatment.