Is Escitalopram Safe in Breastfeeding

I am a breastfeeding mother and i want to know if it is safe to use Escitalopram? Is Escitalopram safe for nursing mother and child? Does Escitalopram extracts into breast milk? Does Escitalopram has any long term or short term side effects on infants? Can Escitalopram influence milk supply or can Escitalopram decrease milk supply in lactating mothers?

S-Enantiomer of Citalopram that shares similar pharmacokinetics and properties with Citalopram. Excretion into breast milk is clinically non-significant. Serum levels of infants from breastfeeding mothers who were treated have been shown to be undetectable or very low. Overall, short or long-term harmful effect has not been reported among breastfed infants. Isolated cases of irritability and neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis after intrauterine exposure have appeared in medical literature contrasting with harmlessness reported by others. Galactorrhea associated or not to hyperprolactinemia, may appear. Women who are on antidepressant treatment in pregnancy are in need of special and intensive support for breastfeeding because of a high risk of early weaning.

Escitalopram is the -isomer of the antidepressant, citalopram. Limited information indicates that maternal doses of escitalopram up to 20 mg daily produce low levels in milk and would not be expected to cause any adverse effects in breastfed infants, especially if the infant is older than 2 months. One case of necrotizing enterocolitis was reported in an breastfed newborn whose mother was taking escitalopram during pregnancy and lactation, but causality was not established. A seizure-like event occurred in an infant who was also exposed to bupropion in milk. Other minor behavioral problems have also been reported. Monitor the infant for drowsiness, especially in younger, exclusively breastfed infants and when using combinations of psychotropic drugs. Mothers taking an SSRI during pregnancy and postpartum may have more difficulty breastfeeding, although this might be a reflection of their disease state.[1] These mothers may need additional breastfeeding support. Breastfed infants exposed to an SSRI during the third trimester of pregnancy have a lower risk of poor neonatal adaptation than formula-fed infants.

Eight breastfed infants whose mothers were taking escitalopram in an average dose of 199 mcg/kg daily for postpartum depression were evaluated by a pediatric specialist using the Denver developmental scale. Their mothers had taken escitalopram for a median of 55 days postpartum (range 23 to 240 days). The infants' scores on this scale was 110% of normal.[3] A woman began taking escitalopram 5 mg daily immediately after birth. Her dosage was increased to 10 mg daily and valproic acid 1200 mg daily was added by 7 weeks postpartum. Her breastfed infant was judged to be healthy and have normal neuropsychological development by a general practitioner at 7.5 weeks of age.[4] One woman was taking escitalopram 20 mg daily and reboxetine 4 mg daily orally while nursing her infant (extent not stated). She had taken reboxetine for 1.5 months, but the start of her escitalopram therapy was not stated. At 9.5 months of age, her breastfed infant had normal weight gain and a Denver developmental score of 105% of chronological age.[5] A nursing mother was given escitalopram 10 mg daily for depression beginning at 3 weeks postpartum and increasing to 20 mg daily thereafter. At 4 months of age, her exclusively breastfed infant was admitted to the hospital for irritability, vomiting and fever of 4 days duration. He had been irritable with prolonged periods of crying for the past 3 months according to his mother and had gained only 400 grams per month since birth. Liver enzymes were moderately elevated. The infant was discharged after 5 days and breastfeeding was continued, but only twice daily for 2 weeks, then discontinued at 4.5 months of age. At 5 months, symptom improvement was noted and at 6 months, serum liver enzymes had normalized. The author noted that the time course of the adverse effects were consistent with the treatment with escitalopram.[9] A mother began taking escitalopram 20 mg daily in the morning on day 15 postpartum. She exclusively breastfed her infant on demand. At 3 months of age, no adverse effects had been reported in the infant by his pediatrician.[10] At 5 days of age, an infant was readmitted to the neonatal intensive care unit with a diagnosis of necrotizing enterocolitis. The infant had spent the first 2 days of life in intensive care because of respiratory distress. The infant's mother had taken escitalopram 20 mg daily throughout pregnancy and while breastfeeding (extent not stated). The authors hypothesized that escitalopram might have been responsible for the enterocolitis because of its effect on platelet aggregation.[11] The drug was possibly a cause of the reaction. One author reported on the newborn infant of a mother who was taking escitalopram (dose and duration not stated). The hyperirritable infant had high-pitched crying 2 hours after breastfeeding every afternoon which was 5 to 6 hours after maternal dose of escitalopram. Changing the time of the mother's escitalopram dose resulted in a shift in the time of the infant's crying at the same time interval after the dose. The infant's symptoms improved with partial substitution of formula and ceased on day 11 of life with complete formula feeding.[12] An uncontrolled online survey compiled data on 930 mothers who nursed their infants while taking an antidepressant. Infant drug discontinuation symptoms (e.g., irritability, low body temperature, uncontrollable crying, eating and sleeping disorders) were reported in about 10% of infants. Mothers who took antidepressants only during breastfeeding were much less likely to notice symptoms of drug discontinuation in their infants than those who took the drug in pregnancy and lactation.[13] A 6.5-month-old infant developed severe vomiting and an apparent tonic seizure after being breastfed by her mother. The mother had been taking escitalopram 10 mg daily since birth and had begun extended-release bupropion 150 mg daily 3 weeks earlier. The seizure occurred 8 hours after the mother's morning dose of bupropion. The infant's mother had noted disturbances in sleep behavior, unusual movements, and unresponsiveness followed by sleep on several previous occasions. The baby was partially breastfed, also receiving pumped breastmilk, formula, and solid foods. Breastfeeding was discontinued and the baby was discharged after being asymptomatic for 48 hours. The seizure was probably drug-related, most likely caused by bupropion and hydroxybupropion in breastmilk, but a contribution by escitalopram cannot be ruled out.[14] A cohort of 247 infants exposed to an antidepressant in utero during the third trimester of pregnancy were assessed for poor neonatal adaptation (PNA). Of the 247 infants, 154 developed PNA. Infants who were exclusively given formula had about 3 times the risk of developing PNA as those who were exclusively or partially breastfed. None of the infants were exposed to escitalopram in utero, but 51 were exposed to citalopram, the racemic form of the drug.[15] A case-control study i

The SSRI class of drugs, including escitalopram, can cause increased prolactin levels and galactorrhea in nonpregnant, nonnursing patients.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Euprolactinemic galactorrhea has also been reported.[26][27][28] The prolactin level in a mother with established lactation may not affect her ability to breastfeed. In a small prospective study, 8 primiparous women who were taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI; 3 taking fluoxetine and 1 each taking citalopram, duloxetine, escitalopram, paroxetine or sertraline) were compared to 423 mothers who were not taking an SRI. Mothers taking an SRI had an onset of milk secretory activation (lactogenesis II) that was delayed by an average of 16.7 hours compared to controls (85.8 hours postpartum in the SRI-treated mothers and 69.1 h in the untreated mothers), which doubled the risk of delayed feeding behavior in the untreated group. However, the delay in lactogenesis II may not be clinically important, since there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in the percentage of mothers experiencing feeding difficulties after day 4 postpartum.[29] A case control study compared the rate of predominant breastfeeding at 2 weeks postpartum in mothers who took an SSRI antidepressant throughout pregnancy and at delivery (n = 167) or an SSRI during pregnancy only (n = 117) to a control group of mothers who took no antidepressants (n = 182). Among the two groups who had taken an SSRI, 33 took citalopram, 18 took escitalopram, 63 took fluoxetine, 2 took fluvoxamine, 78 took paroxetine, and 87 took sertraline. Among the women who took an SSRI, the breastfeeding rate at 2 weeks postpartum was 27% to 33% lower than mother who did not take antidepressants, with no statistical difference in breastfeeding rates between the SSRI-exposed groups.[30] An observational study looked at outcomes of 2859 women who took an antidepressant during the 2 years prior to pregnancy. Compared to women who did not take an antidepressant during pregnancy, mothers who took an antidepressant during all 3 trimesters of pregnancy were 37% less likely to be breastfeeding upon hospital discharge. Mothers who took an antidepressant only during the third trimester were 75% less likely to be breastfeeding at discharge. Those who took an antidepressant only during the first and second trimesters did not have a reduced likelihood of breastfeeding at discharge.[31] The antidepressants used by the mothers were not specified. A retrospective cohort study of hospital electronic medical records from 2001 to 2008 compared women who had been dispensed an antidepressant during late gestation (n = 575) to those who had a psychiatric illness but did not receive an antidepressant (n = 1552) and mothers who did not have a psychiatric diagnosis (n = 30,535). Women who received an antidepressant were 37% less likely to be breastfeeding at discharge than women without a psychiatric diagnosis, but no less likely to be breastfeeding than untreated mothers with a psychiatric diagnosis.[32] None of the mothers were taking escitalopram.