Posts Tagged ‘Seroxat’

Family sues after son born with birth defects; Mother was prescribed antidepressant while pregnant

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Sarah Boseley
guardian.co.uk
August 7, 2009

Kaden Mendoza has just turned seven. His parents, Deborah and Kevin, gave him a big party. They do it every birthday. “It is another year that he has made it through,” says Deborah.

Kaden has undergone open heart surgery three times, the first when he was nine weeks old. “We didn’t find out about Kaden’s heart condition straight away and we almost lost him,” says his mother.

The fourth chamber of his heart was not visible on the ultrasound scan she had when she was pregnant. They didn’t know it was because it was not fully developed. He was two months old when she took the baby to the doctor because he was not breastfeeding.

“His lungs were full of blood,” she says. That was on 22 September 2002. On the 24th, he was airlifted to San Francisco from their home in Washington for his first heart operation.

Throughout her pregnancy, Deborah Mendoza had been taking the antidepressant Paxil, known in the UK as Seroxat. It had been prescribed by the doctor she had seen when she had a panic attack.

Read entire article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/aug/07/paxil-seroxat-antidepressants-glaxosmithkline

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Antidepressants & birth defects

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Sarah Boseley
The Guardian
August 7, 2009

Revealed: GPs still prescribing pill, despite evidence of risk in pregnancy

Thousands of women in the UK may be taking antidepressants prescribed by their GPs without knowing that the pills, which are hard to stop taking, could cause birth defects in unborn children.

The problems relate to a class of drug known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), which includes Prozac and, in particular, the British-made Seroxat.

Several studies have shown a link to birth defects, particularly malformed hearts, in a small proportion of the babies born to women who were taking the drug in the early weeks of pregnancy.

Most GPs in the UK believe that these drugs are safer than older antidepressants. Seroxat has been marketed to women as a drug to relieve anxiety and depression.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration, which licences medicines, issued a warning in 2005 and changed the status of Seroxat, which is sold there under the brand name Paxil. The FDA warns doctors “not to prescribe Paxil in women who are in the first three months of pregnancy or are planning pregnancy, unless other treatment options are not appropriate”.

Read entire article:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/aug/07/women-antidepressant-birth-defects

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