Recent research has found that women who take SSRIS or antidepressants while pregnant may be more likely to deliver a baby with heart, abdominal or skull defects. If you have taken a medication like Prozac, Effexor, Zoloft, Paxil or Lexapro during pregnancy and your child’s condition is the result of your antidepressant use, you may be able to file a New York birth defect lawsuit if you were not informed of the risks of SSRIs use during pregnancy.
Contact Attorney Group for New York today to learn more about your options if you gave birth to a baby with a birth defect that you believe was caused by your use of an SSRI while you were pregnant. Depending on the circumstances surrounding your child’s condition, you may be able to seek compensation for medical care, treatments, or other expenses.
What are SSRIs?
Serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIS, are among the most commonly prescribed drugs to treat depression and anxiety. They work to prevent serotonin from being absorbed into the brain, allowing the patient to better send and receive signals and experience an elevated mood. However, SSRIs may cause several common side effects such as weight loss or gain, headache, nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, dry mouth, bleeding into the gut, difficulty reaching orgasm and vomiting. These medications have also recently been linked to birth defects in infants whose mothers took SSRIs during pregnancy.
SSRIs and Birth Defects
You may be able to file a New York birth defect lawsuit if you were not properly informed of the risks of SSRI use during pregnancy and you delivered a baby with one or more of the following conditions:
- Spina bifida
- Tetralogy of fallot
- Craniosynostosis
- Transportation of the great arteries
- Heart defects
- Omphalocele
- Coarctation of the aorta
- Hypoplastic left heart syndrome
Taking antidepressants during pregnancy can also increase a baby’s risk of developing atrial or ventricular septal defects and club foot. According to women who are currently filing lawsuits in an attempt to recover damages for their babies’ conditions, several manufacturers of various SSRIs failed to provide adequate warnings to inform them of the risk of taking anxiety medications while pregnant. Had they known of the dangers of SSRI use and the effect that these drugs would have on their unborn children, plaintiffs allege that they would not have taken the medications, and their children would not have developed severe, life-threatening or lifelong health complications.
Issues arise when women are pregnant and taking SSRIs, as the chemicals in the medications can potentially cross over into the baby via the placenta and cause growth complications or interfere with the development and formation of vital organs or limbs.
Learn More about Filing a New York Birth Defect Lawsuit
Did you take antidepressants during your pregnancy and you delivered a child with birth defects? Contact Attorney Group for New York today for a free case evaluation that can help you determine whether you have a New York birth defect lawsuit. We can help answer the questions you may have and connect you with an affiliated attorney who can file your New York birth defect lawsuit and assist you throughout the legal process.
