Is Suvorexant safe while breastfeeding?
Here is what NIH LactMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's authority on medicines and breastfeeding, reports about Suvorexant. This is a summary of that source — not our own verdict.
Effects on the breastfed infant
Relevant published information was not found as of the revision date.
Effects on milk supply
Relevant published information was not found as of the revision date.
Levels in milk
Maternal Levels . Two women were taking suvorexant 20 mg at night. They provided milk samples a few days after delivery. One woman provided a sample before a dose and 70 minutes after a dose. The concentrations in those samples were 1.36 and 2.85 mcg/L. The second woman provided samples a few days and one month after delivery taken at unknown times the day after taking the drug. The milk concentrations were 3.47 and 4.09 mcg/L, respectively. The authors estimated the relative infant dosages to be 0.17 and 0.2% in the two women, respectively.[ 1 , 2 ] The manufacturer reports a study in which a single 20 mg dose of suvorexant was given to 12 healthy lactating women. The mean amount of suvorexant recovered in breastmilk was 0.011 mg following a 20 mg maternal dose. The calculated mean daily infant dose was 0.002 mg/kg based on the actual infant body weight. The relative infant dose of the drug plus its metabolite hydroxysuvorexant was less than 1% of the maternal dose. Approximately 82% of the amount of suvorexant excreted in breast milk was excreted by 24 hours after a single maternal dose administration. Infant Levels . Relevant published information was not found as of the revision date.
Alternatives LactMed lists
“No published information” means the studies do not exist yet — not that Suvorexant is known to be harmful, and not that it is known to be safe. Your prescriber or pharmacist can weigh your baby's age and whether a better-studied alternative would do the same job. Worth asking before stopping a medicine you need.
Source: NIH LactMed (National Library of Medicine).
Educational summary of an authoritative source — not medical advice. Never start, stop, or change a medicine while breastfeeding without confirming with your doctor.