Breast feeding and psychotropic drugs

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Abstract
All commonly used psychotropic drugs pass into breast-milk. Most of the literature consists of single case studies and there is too little information to permit one to reach firm conclusions about the presence of, or lack of, possible risks to infants. In most instances, and particularly in relation to tricyclic antidepressants about which most is known, it seems probable that the benefits of breast feeding will outweigh the potential and as yet undefined risks to the infants of very small amounts of drugs and their metabolites. Systematic, controlled longitudinal research is needed to check for accumulation of drugs in infants and to exclude both short and long term toxic effects. Such studies may not be justifiable until enough single-case data has accumulated. Recommendations are made to improve the quality of information from single case studies and to prevent infants from being exposed to drugs in breast-milk if there are any concerns about their health and development

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