WP: Pregnant Women Warned By FDA to Avoid Paxil

Pregnant Women Warned By FDA to Avoid Paxil
By Marc Kaufman and Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 9, 2005; Page A03


The Food and Drug Administration warned pregnant women and their doctors away from the antidepressant Paxil yesterday because of an increased risk of heart defects in newborns.

With the warning, the agency for the first time placed a popular antidepressant -- one in the same drug class as Prozac and Zoloft -- into its second-highest category for risk of birth defects. The agency did not say Paxil could never be used by pregnant women, but it did say the FDA "is advising patients that this drug should usually not be taken during pregnancy."

The advisory is based on early results from two studies, which found that women who took Paxil in the first three months of pregnancy were 1 1/2 to two times more likely to give birth to a child with a heart defect than women who took other antidepressants or pregnant women overall. The studies found that Paxil had a risk of birth defects that other common antidepressants did not.

"If you're on Paxil and pregnant, our advice is to talk to your physician and consider switching to a different drug," said Robert Temple, the FDA's director of medical policy. "Abrupt withdrawal of Paxil has its own problems, but the clear suggestion here is that you might want to think about a change."

In the studies cited by the FDA, the risk of heart defects is about 1 percent overall and rose to 1.5 to 2 percent in infants born to women taking Paxil....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/08/AR2005120802118.html

It's "rewards" aren't worth it. Nasty shit. It's anti-anxiety claims are bullshit. IMHExperience. Stick with good old Wellbutrin. Paxil made me crazy and Paxil withdrawal is agonizing.

Paxil is shit.

At least I had an outlet.

...untill Me and my Mom heard on the News it was pretty much useless for anxiety.

Paxil worked great for me for more than a year, and then just kind of stopped working. I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms. Got back on the med-go-round with Fluoxetine for the depression and Klonopin for the anxiety.

Tucker

but after using it for over 3 years it took me over 6 months to titrate off. WD was hell! I strobed between suicidal, homicidal, panic attacks and severe depression. Plus, I gained 30 pounds on it. No more SSRI's for me.

Getting off it was hell - I was MORE depressed than I was when I went on it. Suicidal thoughts every day for 3-4 months. I went on generic Prozac because I couldn't take it anymore, which helped. It's not as tough to get off should I want to at a later date.

I was taking it for almost 4 years and was about run out so the last week, I just started skipping a day and then when I ran out I had no problems.

It worked pretty well for my mood swings.

I think the important thing to remember about ANY medication is that different people will have different experiences with them. There is no one-size-fits-all anti-depressant.

they all have potential problems for either the mother or the baby. Women who can't function without meds need to consider never having children.

or seeing if it's safe to take them while pregnant (I've had this discussion w/ my psychiatrist; I take Xanax, Wellbutrin and Topamax (for wt. control). Just because a woman takes antidepressants doesn't mean she shouldn't have children. A woman who works at my therapist's office, for instance, had a perfectly healthy baby; she told me she took Paxil during her pregnancy (didn't say for how long, but she was obviously under the strict care of her psychiatrist). It all depends on the person. I just think we shouldn't generalize. You'd be surprised at the number of people who take antidepressants because they need them, and they are perfectly suitable (and good) mothers.

but if I had this information 11 years ago I would have considered switching to a different med. The only advice I got was to go cold turkey (remember this was 11 years ago) from a psychiatrist and to stay on the meds from my ob. I wouldn't recommend going off meds in the first trimester -- it was hell. I ended up slowly tapering over 6 months so as to be off when the baby was born.

The increase from 1% to 1 1/2% isn't huge, but everyone has to do their own risk/benefit analysis in this kind of situation.

and welcome to DU!

Do you also think that diabetics who can't function without insulin shouldn't have children?

:hi: