Use of Antidepressants Increasing despite Lexapro Birth Defects

Baltimore, MDWhile the risks of antidepressants have been well-documented, including Lexapro birth defects, it appears as though Americans are increasing their use of the drugs despite these risks.

According to a recent study conducted by faculty members at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, antidepressants including Paxil, Prozac and Lexapro are currently the third-most frequently prescribed group of medications in the US, with many people taking them for issues deemed minor, the researchers noted.

"Both consumers and prescribers of antidepressants should be more knowledgeable about the indications (or symptoms) that antidepressants are better for," wrote lead author Dr. Ramin Mojtabai, an associate professor of psychiatry at the university, according to HealthDay. "Although these drugs do not have many acute side effects, there may be more long-term adverse effects."

In the study, the authors reportedly used information from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the records of more than 233,000 adult patients who visited their doctors between 1996 and 2007.

According to the news source, the study, which was published in the August edition of Health Affairs, noted that the percentage of prescriptions for antidepressants that were written by non-psychiatrists increased from 4 percent to 9 percent during the span of 12 years. Among the prescriptions were 9,454 for patients who had not been diagnosed with depression or other related mental illnesses.

The large number of cases in which the antidepressants were prescribed to patients without these conditions represented an increase from 2.5 percent at the beginning of the study to 6.4 percent at the end, according to the researchers.

Mojtabai, the lead author, explained in the study that more than 10 percent of Americans now take antidepressants every year, despite the fact that they have been linked to severe side effects in some cases.

"Pharmaceutical companies aren't interested in long-term effects because they don't need that for FDA approval," Mojtabai explained, according to the news source.

An example of these potentially dangerous long-term side effects includes Lexapro birth defects such as cleft lip, cleft palate and potentially craniosynostosis, which can lead to a lack of growth of the child's head, according to reports. The National Center for Biotechnology also lists excessive tiredness, flu-like symptoms and stomach pain as other potential Lexapro side effects.