Paxil is an antidepressant drug belonging to a class of medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Paxil became available in the U.S. in 1993 and is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. It is approved to treat Depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), Panic Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

The FDA has alerted health care professionals and patients about early results of new studies for Paxil (paroxetine) suggesting that the drug increases the risk for birth defects, severe birth defects including Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension (PPHN), heart, lung, abdominal and cranial defects, when women take it during the first three months of pregnancy. The FDA is currently gathering additional data and waiting for the final results of the recent studies in order to better understand the higher risk for birth defects that has been seen with Paxil.

The early results of two studies showed that women who took Paxil during the first three months of pregnancy were about one and a half to two times as likely to have a baby with a heart defect as women who received other antidepressants or women in the general population. Most of the heart defects reported in these studies were atrial and ventricular septal defects (holes in the walls of the chambers of the heart).

If you or someone you love has taken Paxil while pregnant and suffered from birth defects, please contact our service today. We can help put you in touch with experienced Paxil attorneys who are ready and willing to help you get the compensation that you deserve.