Psychopharmacological treatment of schizophrenia during pregnancy and lactation

Abstract It is necessary, in every-day clinical life when treating pregnant women with mental diseases, to reach quick decisions derived from recent comprehensive information. The knowledge of the use of antipsychotics in pregnancy has increased considerably in the last years. This review tries to summarize important considerations and facilitate clinical decisions. This review will cover not only the effects of exposure during pregnancy on outcomes, postnatal adaption syndrome and lactation, but also pharmacokinetic considerations on the use of antipsychotics during pregnancy. The recent publications have found only minimally increased risks for certain malformations, after using ever more sophisticated statistical models of analysis and reassuring amounts of data. Taken together, the quality of the studies has greatly improved and the results are reassuring with respect to the safety of the use of antipsychotics during pregnancy. The rates of weight gain and gestational diabetes warrant closer attention in the clinical setting.