How do medications for bipolar disorder affect pregnancy?
I have severe bipolar disorder and am unable to go off my medication if I become pregnant. How do medications for this disorder affect pregnancy, or should I even consider having children? The situation you describe is obviously anguishing for you. I can well imagine that the advice doctors may have given you was based on their concern that any medicine you take for your bipolar disorder would cause birth defects or irreparable harm to a pregnancy. It is indeed true that some drugs can be harmful to pregnancy, and certainly psychotropic medications like lithium and valproic acid, among other agents used to treat bipolar illness, can be harmful to the developing baby; in fact, both of these drugs have a “D” rating meaning that there is evidence of human fetal risk. This you need to know. At the same time, because there is a risk doesn’t mean that you or your baby will experience that risk. For example, one of my patients who has bipolar illness did become pregnant shortly after she was
