Could Autism Be a Paxil Birth Defect?

Oakland, CAThe study may be small and the researchers cautious. Nonetheless, the latest concern with regard to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), a class that includes Paxil, involves the potential for autism. The latter could be the latest frontier in the battle against Paxil side effects.

While the rest of the country was in the throes of Independence Day celebrations July 4, CNN was reporting on a small study that suggests children exposed to SSRI antidepressants (such as Paxil) in the first trimester carried a risk for the development of an ASD (autism spectrum disorder) that was four times higher than that of children not exposed to SSRI drugs.

According to CNN, the study used the patient database of Kaiser Permanente and identified 298 children born with an ASD. The infants, born within a four-year window between 1995 and 1999, were matched against 1,507 children with autism of similar age and delivered at the same hospitals.

After determining the ratio of expectant mothers who had been prescribed an SSRI (Paxil among them) in the year preceding delivery, the researchers concluded that 6.7 percent of children presenting an ASD were exposed to an SSRI, v. 3.3 percent of infants who were not.

The researchers concluded that an infant exposed to an SSRI such as Paxil in the womb increased the risk of Paxil birth defects such as ASD 2.2 fold. Were the infant exposed in the first trimester, the risk increased to 3.8 fold.

Both the researchers and health care analysts all agree that the study is small and serves little use beyond sending a signal that suggests such a possibility—and that more study with a much larger number of participants is required before any conclusions can be drawn.

"This is the first study of its kind to look at the association, and the findings have to be interpreted with a lot of caution," she says. "We can't detect causality from one study," said lead author Lisa Croen, PhD and the director for Autism Research at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, in comments published by CNN.

Dr. Croen also stressed that severe depression carries its own risks to both mother and fetus, and that it would be unwise for expectant mothers to stop an SSRI such as Paxil for pregnancy out of fears over autism or other Paxil defects, without serious consultations with their doctor.

Still, Croen noted, slightly more than two percent of all autism cases emerging from the late 1990s (children born during that time) might be attributed to SSRI exposure. The lead study author and her colleagues noted the percentage could be even higher today, given the increased use of SSRI antidepressants such as Paxil during pregnancy. That assumption is bolstered by a 2005 study that revealed 6.5 percent of woman carrying a child were taking the drugs.

The study appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Meantime, a Paxil lawsuit is often the result of Paxil defects suffered by patients, or their newborns, occurring without knowing the possibility such adverse reactions were possible.