New research is challenging federal recommendations against the use of antidepressants late in pregnancy. A study by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has found depression medications pose no significant risk to unborn babies.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, tracked nearly 3,800 women and found that while the possibility “cannot be entirely excluded” that antidepressants in late pregnancy may slightly increase risk of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), “the absolute risk is small and the risk increase, if present, appears more modest than suggested in previous studies.”

As a result, lead researcher Krista Huybrechts, said: "Clinicians and patients need to balance the potential small increase in the risk of PPHN, along with other risks that have been attributed to [antidepressant] use during pregnancy, with the benefits attributable to these drugs in improving maternal health and well-being."

In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration issued a controversial public health advisory warning that antidepressants in late pregnancy may increase risk of PPHN, a condition that typically occurs in term or near-term infants and can cause severe respiratory failure requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation.

The 2006 public health advisory was based on a single study that found a six-fold increase in risk associated with exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), commonly prescribed antidepressants, after the 20th week of pregnancy.

But the new Harvard study concluded “There was no … significant increase in the risk of PPHN associated with SSRI or non-SSRI antidepressants.”

The study was funded, in part, by the National Institutes Health.