I actually posted the same question to the list a couple of years ago having noticed what seemed to be a connection between low milk supply and SSRI use in many of the women I work with. At that time I couldn't find any studies out there on this and nobody answered my query. But what I was trying to determine was whether such a connection even exists and also whether it was the underlying depression or the drug itself. This is fascinating to hear of a woman who had established a good supply and then finds it diminished after beginning Zoloft.

So I did a quick search this morning and came up with this.


http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/01/antidepressants-tied-to-lactation-problems

Women who take several widely used antidepressants may experience delayed lactation after giving birth and may need additional support to achieve breastfeeding goals, according to a study to be published in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The drugs in question are SSRIs, such as Glaxo’s Paxil, Pfizer’s Zoloft and Eli Lilly’s Prozac. 

“The breasts are serotonin-regulated glands, meaning the breasts’ ability to secrete milk at the right time is closely related to the body’s production and regulation of the hormone serotonin,” the University of Cincinnati’s Nelson Horseman, a study co-author, says in a statement. The drugs “can affect mood, emotion and sleep they may also impact serotonin regulation in the breast, placing new mothers at greater risk of a delay in the establishment of a full milk supply....


I have even wondered if some of the undiagnosed issues with milk supply that we see could be due to women who are taking SSRIs and not disclosing that they are. Taking an antidepressant in such a personal thing that sometimes it is hard to talk about with a total stranger esp if you believe there is no connection to your milk supply....

Kathy Lilleskov RN IBCLC 

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