Nursing moms face meds dilemma
By Bruce Bower
A woman who develops major depression or any other mental disorder after giving birth faces a tough decision. If she takes psychoactive medication while continuing to breast-feed, she stands a good chance of feeling better, but she also exposes her baby to potentially harmful amounts of the drug.
Unfortunately, there is a dearth of data to help guide her decision. To date, studies of nursing women who used psychoactive drugs have yielded no clear treatment guidelines, according to a report in the July American Journal of Psychiatry.