Paxil Neural Tube Defects

Paxil  and Other SSRIs and Pregnancy

In its online guide to antidepressants and pregnancy, the Mayo Clinic recommends that women avoid Paxil and its generic equivalent, paroxetine, during pregnancy. The reason: In addition to being linked to fetal heart defects, persistent newborn pulmonary hypertension (PPHN), and omphalocele (protrusion of abdominal contents through an opening at the navel), Paxil has been associated with neural tube defects (ntd), specifically anencephaly (congenital absence of part of the brain), and craniosynostis (premature ossification of the skull and closure of the sutures).

Conversely, the Mayo Clinic recommends that women may “consider as an option during pregnancy” all the other drugs in the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of antidepressants: Celexa (citalopram), Prozac or Serafem (Fluoxetine), and Zoloft (sertraline).

New England Journal of Medicine Findings – Paxil Neural Tube Defects

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June 2007 also draws a link between Paxil and congenital birth defects affecting the brain and spinal cord. Conducted by the University of British Columbia, the study examined the data of nearly 10,000 infants born with birth defects and nearly 6,000 healthy infants. It found that babies born to mothers who took Paxil in the first few months of pregnancy were at increased risk of suffering neural tube defects–that is, abnormalities to the tube that is formed in the early vertebrate embryo and that later develops into the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and ganglia.