Haloperidol pregnancy

A 38-year-old woman was admitted to hospital in the third week after conception and acute schizophrenia was diagnosed. She was given oral haloperidol 1.5 mg at 12-hourly intervals. In the fourth week after conception, intramuscular depot fluphenazine 12.5 was added every 15 days. At 8 weeks of gestation, after the pregnancy had been diagnosed, haloperidol and fluphenazine were withdrawn and trifluoperazine 5 mg was started and continued until 8 weeks before the baby was bom. The child was bom with phocomelia of the left arm, with an extremely short humerus and an absent forearm. 

Reports of limb deformity in infants whose mothers took haloperidol during pregnancy... 

Haloperidol should only be used during pregnancy if clearly needed... 

---