More women prescribed psychiatric drugs and left at risk of birth defects New study: Inquiries on a pregnancy and breastfeeding information hotline about psychiatric medications have doubled over the past decade. Women of child-bearing age are increasingly being prescribed psychiatric medications that can cause pregnancy complications and birth defects, doctors fear. A study of calls to the Royal Hospital for Women's MotherSafe pregnancy and breastfeeding information line has found inquiries about psychiatric medications have doubled over the past decade. And a rise in diagnosis of bipolar disorder is prompting many doctors to prescribe young women mood-stabilising medication that carries a high risk of birth defects and lowered IQ for their babies if they become pregnant while taking it. Philip Boyce, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Sydney, said experts were becoming increasingly concerned about use of the mood-stabilising drug Epilim, which also treats epilepsy. "Some years ago Epilim was very heavily marketed and it became very, very widely used [for bipolar disorder]," he said. But really it's only in the last five years we have identified these really significant problems. He said research had linked it with rates of foetal abnormality of up to 17 per cent, and significant decreases in IQ, yet if a woman was not pregnant it required less monitoring than other mood-stabilising drugs. "So doctors [prescribe it] without actually thinking through that two years later this woman could be pregnant," he said. Prescriptions for the drug in Epilim, sodium valproate, have increased by nearly a third over the past 10 years, Medicare figures show. Professor Boyce said increases in antipsychotic and antidepressant medications should be examined as well, because while the overall risk of birth defects was low, they were known to have weight and metabolic side-effects that could increase the risk of gestational diabetes. "We also don't know what we will find in 20 years' time about what effect these drugs have on the developing brain," he said. The MotherSafe study found the number of calls regarding antipsychotic medications increased from about 850 calls between 2000 to 2005, to nearly 2400 between 2006 and 2011. In particular, calls about quetiapine, commonly sold as Seroquel, increased ten-fold, according to the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology study. Study leader Debra Kennedy, the director of MotherSafe, said calls about psychiatric medications seemed to be particularly on the increase in rural and regional areas. She feared women in those areas might be more likely to be medicated because there were fewer psychologists and psychiatrists available who could treat their problems without medication. "Living in the country increases your risk of mental health problems ... and there are fewer resources for mental health treatment," she said. Dr Kennedy said pregnant women were regularly given very bad advice about medication, such as being told to stop taking it without any additional psychological support. "If you have a blood pressure problem there is no stigma about taking medication, but if you have got a mental illness that stigma is still there," she said. While in cases such as Epilim it was clear they should not be on the drug, in other cases simply stopping medication could pose a greater risk. "They end up in hospital with big doses of medications to get them stabilised," she said. It's all about weighing up the risks and benefits. The study also found an increase in the proportion of calls that were from women who were planning for a pregnancy, rather than already pregnant, which Dr Kennedy said was a good sign.