SSRI Birth Defects: "My Daughter was Born with four Heart Defects"

Manitowoc, WIAmy quit taking effexor in her first trimester of pregnancy but she had been taking the antidepressant for roughly 2 years prior to that. Her baby girl was born with heart defects, and given the research she has done, Amy believes effexor may have caused the birth defects.

"At some point, early in my pregnancy, I asked my doctor if it was safe for me to continue taking the effexor," Amy said." He said there were not a lot of data on which to make a decision – he didn't really know. So, I stopped taking it. But when my daughter was born, she had a combination of 4 heart defects – a condition called tetralogy of fallot. The doctors found it because they could hear a murmur and she was what they call a 'blue baby'. Her feet and fingers were gray-blue in color. It's caused from a lack of circulating oxygen. This is all part of the condition."

The effects of tetralogy of fallot are serious. Amy's little girl required surgery at 6 months in order to redirect the blood flow inside her heart so that it goes in the proper direction. "My daughter's coronary arteries were not going in the right direction," Amy said. "She spent a lot of time in the hospital, she was quite sick early on. She's now 2 years old, and is doing well. But she will have to undergo surgery every 2 years to reroute her circulation."

Tetralogy of fallot occurs in between 3 and 6 infants for every 10,000. It can be caused by environmental or genetic factors. But Amy did her homework: she was in the process of becoming a registered nurse which helped. She could find no indication in either her or her husband's families that would indicate risk for the heart defects. "From the investigations I've done, there doesn't appear to be any family background," Amy said.

But Amy thinks there could be an association with the selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) effexor that she had been taking. "I've done a lot of research, and I really think this is what caused my daughter's problems," she said." I always saw the television commercials for paxil birth defects, and I wondered why there was never any information about effexor. Then I went on the Internet and found out that all the SSRIs can cause birth defects."

In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Public Health Advisory on July 19, 2006 regarding SSRI PPHN: persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborns (PPHN) resulting from the use of SSRIs during pregnancy. The notice stated " The FDA has asked the sponsors of all SSRIs to change prescribing information to describe the potential risk for PPHN...Babies born with PPHN have abnormal blood flow through the heart and lungs and do not get enough oxygen to their bodies....Babies with PPHN can be very sick and may die."

But the risk for SSRI birth defects and SSRI PPHN were known earlier than 2006. Research published more than a decade ago, in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1996, showed a risk for PPHN with SSRIs. So why did Amy only find out about this in 2006, 10 years later, and a lifetime too late for her daughter?