SSRI Makers Use Media To Reel In Pregnant Women as Customers

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In discussing a 2004 study published in the Pediatrics journal, lead author Dr Philip Zeskind was quoted in the February 22, 2004, Sunday Telegraph as stating: "What we've found is that SSRI's disrupt the neurological systems of children, and that this is more than just a possibility, and we're talking about hundreds of thousands of babies being exposed to these drugs during pregnancy."

"These babies are bathed in serotonin," he said, "during a key period of their development and we really don't know what it's doing to them or what the long-term effects might be."

Experts say the headlines are also misleading because they infer that no birth defects were found in the studies when, in fact, the CDC study further confirmed associations between SSRI use and the occurrence of craniosynostosis and omphalocele, as well as certain types of heart defects.

The study also found anencephaly, babies born without a forebrain, to be 2.4 times greater in women taking an SSRI in the first trimester. "This is a catastrophic fatal birth defect that is not correctable," Dr Breggin points out. In babies born with anencephaly, much of the brain does not develop, and the babies are either stillborn or die shortly after birth, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Babies born with omphalocele, an abnormality in which the infant's intestine or other abdominal organs protrude from the navel, were 2.8 times higher in women taking SSRI's.

The severity of this condition varies, but can be life-threatening and usually requires surgery as well as weeks to years of adapting.

Craniosynostosis, a condition in which connections among skull bones close prematurely, was 2.5 times more prevalent. "A 2.8 times greater occurrence of this condition," Dr Breggin explains, "will cause 2,305 more US babies to be born each year with this birth defect as a result of their mothers taking SSRI's in the first trimester of pregnancy."

In September 2005, Glaxo sent out a "Dear Doctor" regarding a label change based on a recent study wherein women who took an SSRI were more likely to have an infant with omphalocele, in addition to craniosynostosis.

The CDC study also found that babies exposed to Zoloft had twice the risk of having a heart defect and 3 times the risk with Paxil. In October 2006, the journal, Epidemiology, reported that babies born to women who took SSRI's during the second or third month of pregnancy had nearly 2 times the risk of having congenital malformations, with the most common being cardiovascular in 29%, muscle and bone malformations in 31% and 14% had digestive malformations.

According to SSRI expert, Dr Grace Jackson, "It was already known in the 1980's and 1990's that the administration of SSRI's to embryonic cultures of rats and mice leads to craniofacial and cardiac defects."

The NEJM studies also showed an increased risk of neural tube defects, which are birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, with the two most common being spina bifida and anencephaly.

With spina bifida, the fetal spinal column does not close completely during the first month of pregnancy, and there is usually nerve damage that causes at least some paralysis of the legs.

A recent study conducted by the Institute of Reproductive Toxicology at the University of Ulm, Germany, and the new NEJM article noted that some women who took SSRI's throughout pregnancy had infants born with a club foot, where the foot is turned in, stiff and cannot be brought to a normal position. According to the NEJM, women who took Paxil during pregnancy were at a 5.8% increase of having a child born with this defect.

The NEJM articles also suggest that there is an association between SSRI's and anal atresia, a malformation in which the normal perforation or opening for the anus is absent where the end of the intestinal tract has not perforated the skin in the perineal area.

Industry Influenced Media

The industry's control over the mainstream media, evidenced by the broadcast of the NEJM studies, did not happen overnight. It began in the late 1990's when drug companies were granted permission to advertise their products to the public.

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