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We’ve been hearing for some time now about the FDA’s plans to revise the long-standing categories A, B, C, D, and X designations for risk of using medications in pregnancy. The new rule (referred to as PLLR for Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Rule) was proposed in 2008, finalized in 2014,...

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We’ve been hearing for some time now about the FDA’s plans to revise the long-standing categories A, B, C, D, and X designations for risk of using medications in pregnancy. The new rule (referred to as PLLR for Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Rule) was proposed in 2008, finalized in 2014, and implementation began during the summer of 2015.

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

Dr. Vivien Burt discusses mood disorders and pregnancy. It’s now pretty widely recognized that pregnancy does not protect against mental illness, and the postpartum period is certainly a time of very high vulnerability for women, especially if they’ve had a history of psychiatric illness.

Dr. Simone Vigod describes her approach to prescribing medications during pregnancy. She starts by assessing the severity of the symptoms and the impact on function. Women usually fall into two categories: those who are not on medication and have become symptomatic, and those who have been taking medication, who are perhaps in remission, and are unsure about going off medication during pregnancy.

Excessive salivation is a common and troubling adverse effect of clozapine therapy, occurring in about 30% of patients. Recently, Israeli researchers evaluated another potential treatment, metoclopramide (Reglan), which is a drug for nausea and other gastrointestinal problems. Since metoclopramide commonly causes dry mouth, the authors of this paper reasoned that it might work for clozapine-induced hypersalivation.