AboutDr. Ravindra Bhaskar Ghooi Expertise I can provide information on drugs and medicines, their actions, uses, interactions and adverse effects. To avoid confusion, generic names of
medicines may please be provided. I am a pharmacologist, having worked
on animal and human pharmacology, and presently I am the Dean of Bilcare Research Academy, where we teach courses on clinical research. We dont work on saturdays and sundays, hence questions reachng me on these days will be replied on Monday, please bear with me.
Question Hi,
I am a 24 yr old woman who was diagnosed with Bipolar Affective Disorder and Panic Disorder/Agoraphobia appx 6 years ago. I also have two protruding disks that are pinching a nerve causing extreme pain and muscle spasms. I recently found out that I am pregnant (appx 3 to 5 weeks). I spoke with my GP who is managing my meds about what I should do but I would like as much advice as possible (my first OBGYN appt is not until Feb 10).
I was taking Lith Carb 300mg BID, Lexapro (not sure of the generic name) 20mg a day, Diazapam 5mg TID and Hydrocodone 7.5mg TID. My dr told me to DC the Lithium but to continue the others.
I am a grad student in psychology and have a great interest in studing/researching medicine esp. psychopharmaceuticals. However, I have yet to find any informative studies on the net and haven't had the chance to go to the library to look at journal articles.
I was hoping that you could give me any advice or info on these meds and their effects on the neonate or any kind of reference materials. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, Jessica S.
Answer Hi Jessica,
You have put me in a quandry about your medications. In addition to discontinuing Lithium I feel you should discontinue diazepam, we do not consider the drug safe in the long run.
There are many sites which will give you a list of drugs and their effects in pregnancy and on the fetus, I have complied the list for you which gives recommendations of US, UK, Australia and my country - India. I should point out that in India we are more conservative than most other countries. Because of the different social set up in India we have less cases of psychiatric disorders in the country, we also depend more on human to human interactions for management rather than on drugs. Additionally human to animal interactions have been shown to be very benegficial. If feasible you should think of getting a pet a dog or a cat. For these reasons probably, we have come across very few such cases in our country. We believe that increased human contacts, living in a loving family, presence of friends and relatives, helps manage patients better than drugs.
The list is given below:
Additionally for the detailed information on any particular drug I depend on the following site:
www.rxlist.com
You should also look up this site for individual drugs.
Best wishes
Ravi Ghooi
