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Comment & Response
May 2017

Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Use During Pregnancy—Reply

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York
  • 2Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York
  • 3Division of Epidemiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York
  • 4Sackler Institute of Developmental Psychobiology, Columbia University, New York, New York
  • 5New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York
  • 6Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
  • 7Teratology Information, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
  • 8Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
  • 9Department of Child Psychiatry, Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, Finland
JAMA Psychiatry. 2017;74(5):539-540. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.4065

In Reply We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the letters from Rasminsky and Burt and Miller et al. Regarding the comments of Rasminsky and Burt, we noted the small effect sizes in our article.1 In our view, this was not surprising given that there are likely many contributory exposures and genetic factors responsible for speech and language disturbances. Moreover, given that serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are taken by millions of women during pregnancy, the public health impact to the population may be substantial. Furthermore, we acknowledged other design limitations and note the importance of replication of our findings in independent cohorts. We were also transparent with our data. Owing to the journal’s understandable restrictions on numbers of tables and the need to make the tables readable, the frequency data on those with speech/language disorders were included in a supplemental table.

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