Pregnant? Don’t Take Paxil

March 12th, 2009. By janem

It is incomprehensible that Paxil is still on the market, almost 18 months after the FDA issued its warning about “early results of new studies for Paxil (paroxetine) suggesting that the drug increases the risk for birth defects, particularly heart defects, when women take it during the first three months of pregnancy.”

About 12 million Americans under the age of 44 received at least one prescription for an antidepressant last year and statistics indicate that 19 to 24-year-olds could make up about a fourth of that group. What isn’t known however, is how many of the 12 million are pregnant women. It could be a lot—depression is not uncommon in young, pregnant women. And even now that the really nasty anti-depressants like Paxil have black box warnings of birth defects, some doctors still advise pregnant women to stay on these drugs—they say it is better to stay on it than suffer withdrawal.

How can withdrawal symptoms be worse than having a baby born with a hole in its heart? And giving Paxil to a pregnant woman is like sentencing her to a life on anti-depressants: if her baby is born with birth defects, how will she ever get off a drug like Paxil? Maybe that’s good news for the drug makers…

Tags: antidepressant paxil, heart defects, paxil, paxil and pregnancy

This was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Personal Injury . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.