Amy Philo, a mom who developed severe psychiatric symptoms as a result of being given Zoloft in the post-partum period, was contacted by ABC News about their story, but she was never put on the air. Instead, ABC went with a mom who took antidepressants during pregnancy.

Amy Philo and son

See Amy Amy Philo Speaks Out on the Mother\’s Act.

Since 80% of the efficacy of antidepressants is purely placebo effect, the much vaunted effects of the mainstream academic psychiatry establisment to get all pregnant women with depressive symptoms on an SSRI, which held the risk of injury or death to their in utero babies, something they would have to live with for the rest of their lives, in exchange for a 4% or so bump over placebo on a depression rating, all of the ranting and raving of mainstream psychiatry over the tragedy of the depressed mom, and this bullshit about how she won’t connect with her baby when it is born, seems a bit overblown, no? The true risks of SSRIs to pregnant and lactating mothers and their babies are now becoming known, thanks to excellent journalist reporting by people like Evelyn Pringle. Hopefully it can save some lives. And babies.

First he grumbles about my pointing out that the psychiatrist quoted in the Time article, Katherine Wisner, MD (you can follow the link to the Time article in yesterday’s post), was on the speakers bureau for Pfizer and Lilly (something not noted in the article but which I found on my own), makers of Zoloft and Prozac, respectively, which as a commenter pointed out are promoted as the two safest antidepressants for pregnant and lactating women. Being on a speaker’s bureau these days means giving “promotional talks”, which translates into working for the drug company to advertise to other doctors, and is relevant. In addition, the psychcentral website has paid ads, most of them for treatment (which includes medications), while this site has no ads. And don’t say I am trying to profit off my book, which now goes for a nickel on amazon.

Grohol further takes issue with my statement that women without a prior history of anxiety or depression are not at risk for PPD and therefore would not benefit from widespread screening. However in support of that he cites Ross et al 2009, claiming that history of abuse and alcohol or substance abuse are risk factors for PPD as well. However a perusal of Ross et al shows that a history of childhood abuse is not in fact a factor, rather only abuse during pregnancy. In addition, it is alcohol and substance abuse during pregnancy that is a risk factor, on the order of a pregnant woman drinking a six pack a day or actively abusing cocaine. That kind of substance abuse is a risk to the fetus, and needs to be stopped.

If you have a man beating his pregnant wife, or a woman snorting cocaine while pregnant, that it is a situation much more serious than PPD, and should be stopped. These extreme circumstances hardly justify mass screening for PPD.

I still say NO to the MOTHER’S ACT.

The problem with this is the attitude that being a mother is a risk factor for a psychiatric disorder. First of all, there is no evidence that women without a prior history of anxiety and depression have any increased risk of getting post partum depression. So to screen all moms as if giving birth is a risk factor for depression is ridiculous. And whenever you start screening the general population, you get into problems with over-identification of people and an increase in the number of people that go on antidepressants. I am opposed to mandatory screenings of the population, like Teenscreen, which are bonanzas for the pharmaceutical industry, but a major intrusion into the privacy and autonomy of American citizens. In the case of Melanie Blocker-Stokes, she had already been treated with multiple courses of psychotropic drugs and electro-convulsive therapy, so there is no reason to think that her life would have been saved by “screening”. This legislation is typical of much that comes out of an individual tragedy, that results in an intrusion into the personal lives of individuals and the further relinqueshment of individual freedoms to the government.

The article quotes psychiatrist Katherine Wisner MD as stating ”how can you be opposed to something that will help mothers?” But an examination of the fine print from one of her articles here shows that she is on speakers bureaus for Pfizer and Lilly, makers of Zoloft and Prozac, respectively. 

In it is quoted Amy Philo, a leader of the coalition against the Mother’s Act. Her experience was that after her baby choked on his vomit and needed emergency treatment, she became increasingly anxious about his health. Her doctor gave her Zoloft, telling her that it would make both her and her baby happier. After treatment with Zoloft, she started having alarming suicidal thoughts and thoughts about hurting her baby. When she weaned herself off of Zoloft she felt fine. This experience led her to start the United Non-Profits and Individuals for Truth and Ethics (UNITE), a coalition opposed to the Mother’s Act (click here to sign their petition). Time magazine recently corrected a statement that she had post-partum depression and developed thoughts of harm before taking Zoloft, which wasn’t true.

[update: read more on the debate that arose after this post here at Amy Philo's The Bitter Pill blog and my responses to John Grohol's attack on this post ("Bremner makes false claims...") here and here.]