Does Paxil Cause Birth Defects?

I was watching TV over at my parent’s house this weekend since we were there to celebrate the family birthdays for the month and noticed one of those lawyer ads about Paxil. It implored anyone who had taken Paxil for depression and had had a baby with birth defects to call this particular number and find out if you had a claim. I was surprised and hadn’t heard anything about Paxil causing birth defects, so I thought I would look it up on the internet.

Paxil is used for the treatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders. It is part of a class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Other drugs in this class include Celexa, Prozac, and Zoloft to name a few. These drugs act by limiting the reuptake of the chemical serotonin in the brain allowing it to exert its influence for a longer period of time.

According to what I found out, the United States Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory in December of 2005 alerting health care professionals and patients that early study results for Paxil (paroxetine) suggested that it increased the risk for birth defects especially heart defects in a newborn. The FDA asked the manufacturer of the drug, Glaxo Smith Kline, to change the pregnancy warning to category D.

Other drugs in the class that are also used for depression have also been implicated in causing birth defects so there are many lawyers currently looking for women who took one of these anti-depressants during pregnancy and had a child with a birth defect. In the links section, I included an article I ran across at the U.S. News and World Report website.

Depression can be a serious illness requiring extensive treatment.  Over 9 million Americans suffer from clinical depression that requires treatment and two-thirds of these people are women.  It is no surprise to me that many of these women may have become pregnant while on anti-depressants.  What was surprising to me was the fact that with all the news and media attention regarding Vioxx, I had not heard about the association with Paxil and birth defects.  I suspect because Paxil was not withdrawn from the market, the media hype was not as great.  This is definitely something of which to be aware if you are on these types of medications and wish to become pregnant.