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Breastfeeding significantly reduces the risk of certain disorders (eg, necrotizing enterocolitis, diarrheal disease, neonatal sepsis) in newborns, stimulates maturity and development of the gastrointestinal tract, and has numerous advantages for brain and intelligence quotient (IQ) development. In addition, long-term benefits include a reduced incidence of many infectious diseases (upper respiratory tract infections, otitis media, infectious diarrhea) and various autoimmune syndromes, including Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis. Thus, the benefits of breastfeeding are significant, and discontinuing breastfeeding, simply to take a medication, requires strong justification.
The management of depression and other mental illnesses during lactation presents a complex problem in which the possible risks to the infant from maternal medications must be weighed against the numerous proven benefits of breastfeeding. Because the incidence of psychiatric illness is much higher in the postnatal period than at any other period in a woman’s life,...
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