Women who are pregnant might not treat their mental illnesses because they overestimate risks of medication and underestimate risks of leaving their illness untreated.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(6):614-623. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.6.stas1-1606.
Dr Liam G. McCoy joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Drs Zainab Doleeb, Jazleen Dada, and Catherine Allaire: “Underrecognition of Dysmenorrhea Is an Iatrogenic Harm.”
The first women’s movement in the mid-nineteenth century endorsed anesthesia during childbirth and some of the very patterns of obstetric practice that became anathema to the natural childbirth movement a century later.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(3):253-257. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.3.msoc1-1503.
When deciding whether a pregnant woman will take antidepressants that pose a slight risk to the fetus, the patient and doctor must each make value-based determinations about whether absolute protection of the fetus is more important than preventing the mother’s probable suffering.