Choosing the Victim? Dilemma Over Newborn Birth Defects Continues

New York, NYLia Grainger faces a dilemma shared by many women of child-bearing age who are also taking Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) for depression: how do you stop taking a needed antidepressant in order to avoid birth defects, in order to avoid the potential for newborn birth defects, while still maintaining your equilibrium?

Grainger, writing in Atlantic Online (8/4/14), noted that she is taking Effexor. However, there are similarities with Lexapro and other SSRI antidepressants that have been linked to side effects such as persistent pulmonary hypertension (pph) of the newborn, a condition that can be fatal.

Now 33 and contemplating having a child, Grainger notes that she has suffered from bouts of depression since the age of 19 and fought valiantly against her symptoms without employing medication until her doctor convinced her to try antidepressants at the age of 25.

Eight years later, Grainger writes that she has done well on the SSRI, taking “roughly 2,800 pills I’ve since ingested. Something new is swirling inside my mind: the idea of having a child.”

But she has also done her research into both Effexor and SSRI antidepressants that have been known to cause birth defects, including Lexapro birth defects.

And therein lay the dilemma. Cutting an SSRI is not quite the same as stopping a smoking habit or giving up the nightly martini while pregnant. And while a physician may claim, correctly, that SSRIs are not habit-forming, at the same time the patient comes to rely on them to get through the day.

How does a Lexapro patient give up her SSRI for nine months or more in order to give her child a sporting chance, and still survive? Especially when major depression is involved?

The FDA says SSRIs are not safe for pregnancy

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a safety advisory in 2006 following the publication of a study appearing around that time in The New England Journal of Medicine, that found women who took an SSRI such as Lexapro during the second half of their pregnancy were six times more likely to give birth to an infant born with Lexapro pph than those women who avoided taking an SSRI late in their pregnancy.

While various studies carry different conclusions as to the degree and severity of risk for Lexapro birth defects, the official Lexapro website goes so far as to state that there is no one study that determines conclusively that use of SSRI antidepressants are safe during pregnancy. Therefore, Lexapro should not be used during pregnancy unless it is determined, in consultation with a medical professional, that the benefits of Lexapro to the mother far outweigh the risks.

Can the mother survive, emotionally, coming off Lexapro for nine months, in order to spare her child Lexapro side effects that could last an entire lifetime?

Many a Lexapro lawsuit alleges Lexapro birth defects that were not anticipated or foreseen. Forest Laboratories, the developer and manufacturer of Lexapro, was acquired by Actavas PLC in July of this year. Actavas, in its Form 10-Q report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a month after the acquisition, on August 5 for its quarterly period ending June 30, 2014 noted that Forest and its affiliates were defendants in 13 actions involving allegations that Lexapro and one other drug caused or contributed to suicide, or suicide attempts.

Further, a total of 194 lawsuits filed against Forest and its affiliates allege Lexapro birth defects and other issues with newborns involving Celexa.

“The majority of these actions have been consolidated in Cole County Circuit Court in Missouri. One action is set for trial in Cole County in April 2015. Fifteen actions were recently remanded to New Jersey state courts from the US District Court for the District of New Jersey (nine actions are now pending in Atlantic County, New Jersey and six actions are now pending in Hudson County, New Jersey). Approximately five actions remain pending in New Jersey federal court. One action is pending in Orange County, California and is set for trial in March 2015,” notes the report.

Meanwhile, the debate rages. Lexapro birth defects continue to be a risk. As for the debate over benefits that may or may not outweigh the risks, the child has no say in the matter…