Paxil - Beyond Birth Defects
Much has been made of the effect Paxil has on unborn children, particularly during the first trimester of the mother's pregnancy. However, there is always more to the story than the obvious. For example, Paxil has long carried warnings that it has been linked to potential aggravation of suicidal thoughts, particularly in teenage patients. But a new study has recently been published, explaining that there are still more affects that antidepressants in Paxil's class may have on patients.
This study is interesting because it was administered to twins. Twin studies are important because they allow doctors to see the different ways that treatments affect closely-related individuals. Thus, even though the sample was fairly small at 240 patients, the fact that these patients were all twins allows for specialized data to be extracted, anyway.
The study divided the groups into patients put on Paxil, patients put on a placebo and patients who received talking therapy. The results followed expectations in one way, in that those patients who received therapy or medication did better than the control group on the placebo. However, the study wasn't simply measuring overall progress, but effect on certain traits, such as extraversion. The study showed that patients on Paxil showed markedly increased levels of extraversion versus the control group.
This may not seem like a problem right away; after all, if the medicine helps them be more outgoing, what's wrong with it? However, it does indicate that Paxil may not only be acting on the depression and its chemical causes. Instead, doctors are concerned that perhaps it's causing changes to the patient's entire personality. This would lend credence to the notion that the medicine can cause the formation and aggravation of suicidal thoughts in certain patients.
The study is too small to make any serious generalizations from the matter, but it does represent a new way of looking at the problem, and new information is always important in holding pharmaceutical companies to task in the effects of their medications.
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