About

Mary F. Hebert, Pharm.D., FCCP, is a Professor of Pharmacy and an Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington. She serves as the Director of the University of Washington Obstetric-Fetal Pharmacology Research Unit and is a core member of the University of Washington Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health, as well as a member of the Institute of Translational Health Sciences. Dr. Hebert joined the University of Washington faculty in 1996 and has over 30 years of experience conducting clinical pharmacology research, resulting in more than 100 publications. Her research focuses on a mechanistic understanding of changes in the clinical pharmacology of medications during pregnancy and lactation. She is a translational researcher capable of bridging basic science to clinical applications, with research grants encompassing basic science work in drug metabolism and transport, animal studies from rodents to non-human primates, and human phase I to III clinical trials. Dr. Hebert's multidisciplinary Obstetric-fetal Pharmacology Research Unit collaborates with departments across the University of Washington School of Pharmacy and other university departments. She is a licensed pharmacist with extensive pharmacy practice experience in community retail, community hospital, and tertiary care settings, including adult, pediatric, inpatient, and outpatient care.

Research topics

• Psychiatry
• Obstetrics
• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Pediatrics

Selected publications

• Timing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use and risk for preterm birth and related adverse events: with a consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic period

  The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine · 2024 · 5 citations

  • Medicine
  • Obstetrics
  • Pediatrics

  OBJECTIVE: There is uncertainty around the safety of SSRIs for treating depression during pregnancy. Nevertheless, the use of SSRIs has been gradually increasing, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic period. We aimed to (1) characterize maternal depression rate and use of SSRIs in a recent 10-year period, (2) address confounding by indication, as well as socioeconomic and environmental factors, and (3) evaluate associations of the timing of SSRI exposure in pregnancy with risk for preterm birth (PTB), low birthweight (LBW), and small for gestational age (SGA) infants among women with depression before pregnancy. METHODS: We conducted propensity score-adjusted regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) of PTB, LBW, and SGA. We accounted for maternal/pregnancy characteristics, comorbidity, depression severity, time of delivery, social vulnerability, and rural residence. RESULTS: = 887). The late SSRI exposure group had an increased risk of PTB of OR = 1.5 ([1.2,1.8]) and LBW of OR = 1.5 ([1.2,2.0]), relative to the unexposed group. Associations between late SSRI exposure and risk of PTB/LBW were similar among a subsample of patients who delivered during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest an association between PTB/LBW and SSRI exposure is dependent on exposure timing during pregnancy. Small for gestational age is not associated with SSRI exposure.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Timing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use and risk for preterm birth and related adverse events

  medRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2023 · 1 citations

  • Medicine
  • Obstetrics
  • Internal medicine

  Abstract Purpose There is uncertainty around the safety of SSRIs for treating depression during pregnancy. We aimed 1) to address confounding by indication, as well as socioeconomic and environmental factors associated with depression and 2) evaluate associations of timing of SSRI exposure in pregnancy with the risk of preterm birth and related outcomes (small for gestational age and low birthweight) among women with depression before pregnancy. Methods We conducted propensity score-adjusted regression to calculate odds ratios (OR) of preterm birth, small for gestational age, and low birth weight. We accounted for maternal/pregnancy characteristics, pre-pregnancy comorbidity/depression severity, social vulnerability, rural health disparity, and pre-natal depression severity. We additionally conducted a drug-specific analysis and assessed the impact of other classes of antidepressants within our cohort of interest. Results Among women with a history of depression, we identified women with indication of depression ≤ 180 days before pregnancy (n=6,408). Women with no SSRI order during pregnancy (n=3,122) constituted the unexposed group (no SSRI exposure group). The late SSRI exposure group consisted of women with an SSRI order after the first trimester (n=2,596). The early-only SSRI exposure group consisted of women with SSRI orders only in the first trimester (n=691). Late SSRI exposure group had an increased risk of preterm birth of OR=1.7 ([1.3,2.2], p<0.0001), and low birth weight of OR = 1.7 ([1.3,2.4], p<0.001), relative to the no SSRI exposure group. Conclusions These findings suggest associations between preterm birth/low birthweight and SSRI exposure is dependent on exposure timing during pregnancy. Small for gestational age is not associated with SSRI exposure.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Navesh Sharma

  WellSpan Health

  64 shared

• Gordon Koltis

  Pennsylvania State University

  64 shared

• William F. Regine

  University of Maryland, Baltimore

  64 shared

• Shilpen Patel

  64 shared

• Steven J. Feigenberg

  University of Pennsylvania

  64 shared

• Norman E. Wallis

  Tufts Medical Center

  64 shared

• Catheryn M. Yashar

  64 shared

• Dheerendra Prasad

  Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

  64 shared

Similar researchers at University of Washington

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• Jan Hansenh-130
• Linda Simonsenh-120
• Anna Waldh-119
• Jesse Bloomh-117