Paxil and Newborn Birth Defects - By: B Green

Description : In the early part of the first decade of the 21st century, a new medication came onto the market that promised to help those afflicted with depression in a way that no anti-depressant had yet been able to achieve.

And this drug was mostly successful on delivering what it promised to patients, helping them overcome a host of disorders related to the onset of clinical depression. Unfortunately, though, this drug carried with it some severe side effects. Worse yet, there are indications that the makers of this medication knew beforehand about the severe nature of these side effects, yet encouraged doctors and psychiatrists to prescribe the drug to their patients anyhow.

What Is Paxil?

Paxil is a medication that was developed and distributed by the multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical conglomerate GlaxoSmithKline. This company has developed and released hundreds of medications treating all sorts of illnesses, afflictions and disorders. Paxil was intended to relieve and treat cases of clinical depression that resulted in bouts of obsessive compulsive disorder, manic episodes and other psychological problems. Paxil itself is chemically derived through Paroxetene Hyrdochloride. It is a potent anti-depressant that inhibits serotonin receptors in the human brain, thus alleviating many of the symptoms of depression.

Doctors and psychiatrists have prescribed Paxil in an effort to treat anxiety attacks, manic episodes and depression, for patients that were unresponsive to previous medications and therapy.

Have There Been Many Paxil Lawsuits To Date?

Yes, though not as many as one would think, given the severe nature of the side effects. There have been many more lawsuits filed against other medications that have produced, frankly, far less severe side effects. However, of the lawsuits filed against GlaxoSmithKline, and the doctors and psychiatrists who have prescribed Paxil to patients, most have centered around the severe birth defects that the drug caused in women who were pregnant at the time of prescription. These birth defects linked Paxil to PPHN (Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension in Newborns) and a host of other serious cardiopulmonary disorders.

The makers of Paxil revised the warning literature for Paxil several times, following warnings issued by the federal Food and Drug Administration warning that Paxil posed a significant risk to women who were pregnant or who were planning on soon becoming pregnant. There was an effort to organize a class action lawsuit on behalf of women who were pregnant at the time that they were prescribed Paxil, and whose pregnancies were complicated by Paxil birth defects.


What Are The Birth Defects?

Of the many birth defects related to Paxil, the most common is PPHN, which stands for Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension in Newborns. PPHN is a cardiopulmonary disorder characterized by a heart defect that does not allow a newborn’s heart to pump in venous blood. This problem is cause by vascular pressure that prevents the heart from pumping blood properly. Venous blood is, instead, pumped through fetal channels.

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Author Resource :

Bob Green is the author of this article on Paxil Lawsuit.
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