SSRI Birth Defects: "My Child is the Victim"

Paris, AKCatrenia is upset and angry. Her son was born with a heart condition that could have killed him, and will certainly affect him for the rest of his life. He has a hole in his heart that is very likely an SSRI birth defect that could have been prevented.

Aside from the obvious reasons, Catrenia is angry because she was never given any information about the established risk for infant heart defects associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

"I have a 7 month old son who was born with complete AVSD," Catrenia said."He has undergone 2 open heart surgeries to save his life, and must undergo further surgeries as he gets older."

AVSD – or atrioventricular septal defect –also known as atrioventricular canal defects or endocardial cushion defects, is a type of congenital heart disease. According to the doctor Catrenia has seen, Braden's heart defect occurred within the first 28 days of conception, when his heart was being formed. But the defect was only found several months after he was born.

"Seven and a half weeks after Braden was born he suffered congestive heart failure," Catrenia said. "He had puffy eyes, his lips were blue, he was pale, his extremities were cold. He was also jaundiced, and he had developed a cough. Up until that point he had suffered from poor circulation and he slept a lot. On one occasion he slept 22 out of 24 hours: I had to wake him to feed him. I never thought he had a heart defect-I put it down to my milk. I had about 7 ultra sounds while I was pregnant, but nothing came up. They showed me all 4 chambers of his heart – they said my baby looks perfect.

But when I took him to the doctor to be examined, the doctor found a heart murmur. That's when we discovered he had 2 holes in his heart. Basically, he has an aortic valve but no mitral valve, which is why he wasn't getting any oxygenated blood to his extremities."

On November 4, 2008 Braden collapsed. "He was in heart failure," Catrenia said. "We took him to hospital, and on November 13 he had his first open heart surgery. He came out about 6 or 7 hours later for maybe an hour and was rushed back in because he was losing blood through his chest tubes. They patched the holes, and got everything back and created a mitral valve, but it will not grow as he does because it's man made.
As his heart grows bigger, the supply for oxygenated blood will not be as great as the demand. So he will have to have a pediatric cardiac surgery as he grows to fix this problem. Then when he is considered to be fully grown he will receive a mechanical valve. He is currently taking an adult blood pressure medication, and will be on blood thinners for the rest of his life.

I'm mad because had someone had told me that I was at risk I would have paid closer attention. I also wish that doctors would give out that information when they are prescribing these drugs."

SSRI Birth Defects – What Every Mother Should Know But May not be Told

In 2007, a study of 500,000 women, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that 50 percent of women taking a prescription drug during pregnancy were not aware that those drugs could cause birth defects, because they had not been warned about getting pregnant while on the drugs.

This finding is startling, especially given the fact that in July, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered manufacturers of SSRIs and SNRIs to carry warnings on their labels about the risk for persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN). The 2006 warning was precipitated by a public health warning issued by the FDA in 2005, based on findings from 2 studies which showed an increased risk for birth defects in babies born to women taking Paxil during pregnancy.

In fact, the studies showed a 1 to 2 times greater risk of having a baby with a heart birth defect while on Paxil. In conjunction with the warning, the FDA placed Paxil in its second highest category of drugs known to cause birth defects.

However, of Paxil is not the only antidepressant to cause birth defects. Other drugs in the SSRI class include Prozac by Eli Lilly, Zoloft by Pfizer, and Celexa and Lexapro sold by Forest Laboratories, along with various generic versions of the drugs. They all carry warnings. The closely-related class of SNRI antidepressants also carry birth defects warnings and include Wyeth's Effexor and Lilly's Cymbalta.


"Nobody gave me the information that could have changed Braden's life," Catrenia said. "He will never be able to play football, or baseball, or ride a rollercoaster. He will not be able to experience the things my other 4 children have experienced. Braden's heart defect is for life, and he will have to be monitored for the rest of his life."