Depakote’s Risk of Possible Birth Defects

Last week, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that “despite major advances in research, between 30 and 40 percent of all people diagnosed with depression don’t respond to standard treatments.”

According to the Post-Gazette, the failure rate for depression treatment is “unacceptable,”, and is an example of how doctors have a long way to go into making chronic depression a disorder they can treat effectively.

The newspaper reported that doctors and researchers still do not fully understand the biology of depression and only have partial answers to why imbalanced brain chemicals and “misfired connections” in the brain occur.

“It’s very frustrating actually,” Mary Phillips, a brain-imaging expert at the University of Pittsburgh, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The treatments for depression have developed in the absence of biomarkers, and yet we are now getting neuroimaging results and, somehow, we have to figure out a way to marry these two things.”

Antidepressants or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) including Zoloft, Paxil and Prozac are often used to treat people who suffer from mood disorders. It is troubling that researchers know very little about how effective these medications are, as they have been linked to many complications, including birth defects among children whose mothers took them during pregnancy.

These birth defects include cleft lip and palate, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), septal heart defects, craniosynostosis, limb defects, omphalocele and anal atresia.

Our pharmaceutical drug and device attorneys have fought for mothers who have had children born with defects from SSRIs. If you have been injured, contact our SSRI attorneys by calling toll-free at (888)841-9623. We can help you obtain compensation for your child’s injuries.

ZK’s ‘Did You Know?’: Some notable SSRIs include Paxil, Pexeva, Prozac, Sarafem, Symbyax, Lexapro and Celexa.