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Manie’s parents want answers. Their beautiful son was born with transposition of the greater arteries and endured surgeries children should never have to experience. His parents blame GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), makers of the antidepressant Paxil.
In 2005, GlaxoSmithKline informed health care professionals that it was updating the Pregnancy subsection of the PRECAUTIONS section of the labels for its popular antidepressant medication Paxil to indicate the risk of possible side effects based on a study conducted by the drug maker. The study revealed a greater risk of birth defects in infants born to woman taking antidepressants during the first trimester. An even greater risk was found associated with the use of Paxil over other antidepressants in the study.
Women who experience symptoms of depression prior to becoming pregnant have an increased risk of preterm birth, but black women who are depressed are at greater risk of delivering a preterm baby than white women, according to a report in the Journal of Women’s Health.
Pregnant women and new mothers who have diabetes are nearly twice as likely to suffer from symptoms of postpartum depression compared to pregnant women and new mothers who do not have diabetes, according to a Harvard Medical School and University of Minnesota School of Public Health study.
Emory University has reprimanded one of its leading psychiatrists for speaking on behalf of a drug company while conducting research that touched on the use of that company’s drug in pregnant women.
Women who are depressed and women who take antidepressants during pregnancy may face a greater risk of delivering their baby prematurely, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry and cited in Health magazine.
For the study, researchers observed a group of 300 pregnant women, most of whom did not suffer from depression but some either had a history of depression or reported becoming depressed during pregnancy. Of those observed, some took medication to treat their depression either for part of their pregnancy or for the entire pregnancy; some did not take medication and remained depressed; and some did not take medication and reported being depressed for only part of their pregnancy.
Years ago, it was thought that pregnancy protected women from depression, but researchers have since learned that being pregnant and recent childbirth may actually contribute to a woman’s depression, filling her with a range of emotions that make dealing with the symptoms of the condition even more difficult. According to the Mayo Clinic, an estimated 10 percent of women experience depression during pregnancy.
Christine K’s newborn baby spent her first four days of life hooked up to tubes in an incubator at a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, a helpless victim of her mother’s longtime use of antidepressants prior to and for the first six months of her pregnancy.
Christine K had been prescribed a combination of Paxil, Risperdal and Depakote five years prior to becoming pregnant. While pregnant she read that Paxil could be harmful to her unborn baby. She asked her doctor take her off the meds, but he insisted she stay on them.
The first warning Faith Gibson had that the hole in her 3 ½-year-old daughter’s heart was caused by the anti-anxiety drug that she thought was safe to take during pregnancy, was when she read a newspaper story about another little girl born with the same birth defect. That mother was suing drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for failing to warn her of the risk of heart defects in newborns when taking Paxil during pregnancy. It was the same medication Gibson had taking since 2002 and during her pregnancy.
Five more suits have been filed in Pennsylvania against the makers of the antidepressant Paxil on behalf of children who have developed severe heart problems.
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