Antidepressant discontinuation during pregnancy and relapse risk in the perinatal period

2026-07-22

Antidepressants are the mainstay of pharmacological treatment for depressive and anxiety disorders in the perinatal period, and up to one in ten pregnant women take them. Among these women, over 50% discontinue antidepressants during pregnancy due to fear of possible adverse fetal effects. However, discontinuation may increase the risk of relapse, which can also have profound negative impacts. Evidence on perinatal relapse risk following antidepressant discontinuation during pregnancy is sparse and limited to highly selected populations. Moreover, the only factors considered in studies so far have been simple demographics and clinical features, while genetic profiling is conspicuously absent. The project aims to address knowledge gaps which urgently need to be understood in order for clinical care to provide personalized antidepressant treatment recommendations around pregnancy. This overarching objective will identify women at low or high relapse risk after discontinuing antidepressants during pregnancy and determine risk factors of relapse to enable personal risk estimates for the first time, in a large representative population, combining demographics, clinical features and genetic data retrieved from Danish national registers and the Integrative Psychiatric Research (iPSYCH) cohort. The project will provide a unique opportunity due to its multidisciplinary nature and innovative combinations of genetics and epidemiology. The proposed research will benefit from the expertise in genetics, genomics, and psychiatric epidemiology of the supervisors, and the fellow’s multidisciplinary skills in epidemiology and biostatistics applied on large, highly complicated datasets. The fellow will acquire state-of-the-art skills in the analysis of genetic data, planning, and management by training-through-research along with coursework. This project will form a fundamental leap towards her future independent career as a leading and international recognized epidemiologist.

Denmark

2026-02-15