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Studies done in Europe and the United States, including one reviewed by the US Federal Drug Administration, have confirmed that the use of antidepressant drugs like Paxil during pregnancy poses a higher risk of causing serious birth defects.

Laboratory research has shown that using Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI), including the antidepressant drug Paxil, during pregnancy increases the chance that an infant will be born with severe defects. These drug-induced abnormal conditions harm the vital bodily functions of the brain, heart and lungs, and include deformities of the spine and skull.

Paxil was released in 1992, with little mention of the risks, and has since been prescribed to more than 100 million people. And since even after the FDA gave it a "black box" warning in 2004, it was still manufactured and sold, experts are worried that millions of infants have been born with severe birth defects because of its use.

If you took Paxil and your baby was born with birth defects, you and your family don't have to face the tragedy alone. An attorney can help you understand your legal options, because this wasn't your fault and you are entitled to substantial recovery not only for your pain and suffering, but for the medical expenses, and the lost time and wages that occur while dealing with such a traumatic situation.

Heart Conditions

Antidepressant drugs like Paxil may cause holes in the walls of the heart of a developing baby, according to the FDA and a study done at Denmark's Aarhus University. These conditions are called Atrial Septial Defects and Ventricular Septial Defects.

Lung Problems

Taking a drug like Paxil during pregnancy increases the possibility that an infant will be born unable to breathe on its own, a study at the University of California at San Diego found. The findings showed a significant link between antidepressants and severe respiratory problems, including Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension in Newborns (PPHN).

Foot Deformity

Researchers have found that the chance of a condition known as Club Foot – the muscles, joints and bones of one or both legs don't form correctly and the foot faces inward – increases in infants whose mothers used drugs like Paxil during pregnancy.

Spine and Brain Defects

The use of SSRI drugs like Paxil during pregnancy was linked as a possible cause of neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, which is when the backbone and spinal canal don't close before birth, and anencephaly, which is the absence of a large part of the brain and the skull, according to a 2007 study by the New England Journal of Medicine. Neural tube defects can result in paralysis and early death.

Cranial Defects

Using antidepressant drugs like Paxil during pregnancy could cause craniosynostosis, a condition that occurs when the bones of the skull fuse prematurely, another 2007 study by the New England Journal of Medicine, along with the National Birth Defects Prevention Study of Infants, found.

Abdominal Defects

A relation between Omphalocele, a condition in which the abdominal muscles form late and the intestines and liver develop outside the body, and the use of antidepressant drugs like Paxil, was found in another 2007 in a study by the New England Journal of Medicine and the National Birth Defects Prevention Study of Infants.