The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has issued updated guidelines for the treatment of certain psychiatric illnesses during pregnancy and breast-feeding. The April 2008 Practice Bulletin updates the previous November 2007 bulletin and is based on current evidence of risks and benefits of treatment of psychiatric illnesses during pregnancy. The guidelines are designed to aid clinicians in providing appropriate care.
"The bulletin acknowledges that there’s good evidence that untreated or inadequately treated mental illness is unhealthy, which is probably one of the first times it’s ever been pointed out so definitively," Zachary N. Stowe, MD, from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who contributed to the development of these guidelines, told Medscape Psychiatry.
The study is published in the April issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
