Around 4 per cent of all pregnant women in the first trimester take an antidepressant – and now researchers have discovered the drug causes miscarriage. None of the safety studies had before looked for miscarriage as a possible adverse reaction to the drug – but now researchers at the University of Montreal have established that SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants increase the chances of miscarriage by at least 5.5 per cent. In a major study of 5,124 pregnant women, the researchers discovered that 284 of the women who miscarried had taken an SSRI during the first trimester. (Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2010; doi: 10.1503/cmaj.091208).