Experts alarmed by FDA panel review of antidepressants in pregnancy

Los Angeles — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is turning its attention to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a class of antidepressant drugs long criticized by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

On Monday morning, the FDA hosted a 10-person expert panel on the use during pregnancy of SSRIs, which include medications like fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft) and citalopram (Celexa), among others.

Nine of the panel's 10 members were researchers, doctors or psychologists who have previously questioned the safety of SSRIs publicly or spoken out against antidepressant use in general.

Over the course of the discussion, several panel members cited studies that lacked appropriate controls, physicians not involved with the panel said. In other words, there