A February 2004, study in the Pediatrics journal, linked abnormal heart rhythms, sleeping patterns, and levels of alertness to exposure to SSRIs in the womb. Dr Philip Zeskind, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and lead author, said the results were alarming.
According to the study, infants exposed to SSRIs tended to be locked in one "sleep state," and showed "fewer of the smooth and predictable changes in heart rate that normally occur in newborn infants."
Earlier this year, on April 7, 2006, the BBC reported that a Canadian study from the University of Ottawa, of almost 5,000 mothers found that SSRI use during pregnancy doubled the risk of delivering a stillborn baby and that women who took the drugs were also more likely to have a premature or low birth weight baby.
In the US, preterm birth is reportedly the leading cause of infant mortality, accounting for at least a third of all infant deaths in 2002. The contribution of prematurity to infant mortality may be twice as high as originally estimated, reported William M. Callaghan, MD, MPH., and colleagues, in the October 2006 issue of Pediatrics.
Five More Birth Defect Lawsuits
Earlier this month, five more lawsuits were filed on behalf of families of infants born with birth defects to mothers who were prescribed Paxil during pregnancy. Of the five cases, two are personal injury lawsuits and three are wrongful death cases. The lawsuits allege that GSK failed to warn doctors and consumers about the risk of birth defects and Paxil.
In the case of one West Virginia family, twin daughters were both born with heart defects. One daughter survived but the other died when she was 20-months-old. The parents have two older children who were born without birth defects. Their mother had not taken Paxil during pregnancy.
Another Paxil exposed infant with heart defects was born to an Omaha, Nebraska couple and lived only 24 days even after he underwent four surgeries in an attempt to save his life. There are three other normal children in this family, all born during times when their mother was not on Paxil.
A Toledo, Ohio, infant lived only 17 days after she was born with heart defects and underwent several surgeries in attempts to save her life. There is one older child in this family born without birth defects when the mother was not taking Paxil.
In Westerville, Ohio, another infant was born with heart defects to a mother who was prescribed Paxil during pregnancy and required two life-threatening surgeries during the first nine months after birth. The child is scheduled for an additional surgical procedure next year.
Less than five months ago, on July 28, 2006, a Texas couple filed suit against GSK. The lawsuit alleges that after the mother's use of Paxil caused their infant to be born with heart defects requiring multiple open-heart surgeries and the implantation of a pacemaker.
Baum Hedlund, a Los Angeles-based law firm that specializes in pharmaceutical product liability claims is handling these lawsuits, and has the longest track record of SSRI litigation in the country, representing over 3,000 antidepressant plaintiffs over the past 16 years. The firm currently represents families in dozens of birth defect cases and has five attorneys assigned specifically to SSRI litigation.
Karen Barth Menzies is a partner at Baum Hedlund and heads the Antidepressant Litigation Department. For more than a decade, she has been handling SSRI-induced suicide/violence litigation involving Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft and now also represents families in antidepressant birth defect cases.
Jennifer Liakos and Robert Brava-Partain are associate attorneys at the firm and members of the pharmaceutical products liability department handling all of the firm's antidepressant birth defect cases and suicide and/or suicide attempt cases involving Paxil.
The firm is also being retained in birth defect cases for antidepressants other than Paxil.
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