Drugs, hormones and ECT in childbearing women with psychiatric disorders

About 7% of women of childbearing age suffer from the acute symptoms of a moderate-to-severe mental illness, or have recently had an episode requiring drug treatment. The management of episodes in these childbearing women poses several problems. Childbearing may affect the course of illness and alterations in treatment may be required. Treatments which may be effective for the mother may be harmful to the unborn child. In this contribution, we cover the use of psychotropic drugs, anti-epileptics, antipsychotics, antidepressants, hormone treatments and ECT in pregnancy.