[Psychotropic drugs and pregnancy: a review (author's transl)].

A wide range of literature on the use of psychoactive drugs in pregnancy and breastfeeding is reviewed critically and systemically. The question of 'guidelines' for an adequate treatment of pregnant psychiatric patients cannot be answered in an unequivocal or reassuring way. First of all, it is our inconclusive knowledge of this subject which demands caution prior to prescribing. Only in second line, isolated evidence of possible but mostly unproven damage to unborn children by the use of individual psychotropic drugs should be taken into account.