Aripiprazole use in a pregnant schizoaffective woman

Background: There are few or no clinical data on the safety of aripiprazole during pregnancy and lactation. Case report: A 27-year-old schizoaffective woman conceived while receiving aripiprazole 15 mg/day. The drug was withdrawn during the eighth week of gestation. She relapsed at week 20, and resumed treatment with the drug at a dose of 10 mg/day. She responded well, and the drug was continued through the rest of the pregnancy. The pregnancy was uneventful, but unexplained fetal tachycardia necessitated a cesarean section at full term. The newborn infant was normal in all regards and developed normally during a 6-month follow up. The infant required to be bottle-fed because of a failure of lactation. Conclusion: In this case, exposure to aripiprazole during different trimesters of pregnancy was not associated with intrauterine death, morphological teratogenicity, impaired fetal growth, neonatal toxicity, or neurobehavioral teratogenicity. Maternal health was not adversely affected during pregnancy. However, lactation failure occurred after delivery.