New Test Could Have Predicted Paxil Side Effects

Washington, D.C.Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California San Francisco have created an experimental method that could accurately predict a chemical's interaction with the human body, in a move that could help prevent future drug complications like Paxil birth defects.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">The new method is a computational technique that compares how similar the structures of all identified drugs are to human cells and diseases. The move allows scientists to examine how medications will interact with the body without dangerous animal or human trials.

"This approach uncovered interactions between drugs and targets that we never could have predicted simply by looking at the chemical structures," claims senior study Author Bryan Roth in the medical journal Nature. "We may now have a way to predict what side effects are likely to occur from treatment before we even put a drug into clinical testing."

Using this method, scientists may be able to predict the side effects associated with antidepressants like Paxil, which has been linked to heart defects in newborn children. A 2005 FDA study found that women who took Paxil during the first trimester were 1 and a half to two times more likely to give birth to children with defective hearts than women who did not.