A South Carolina couple is filing a lawsuit against the maker of Paxil claiming that the drug caused their daughter’s birth defect. Paxil’s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, has faced several thousand Paxil lawsuits in the United States since the drug’s introduction in 1992.

In 2000, Taylor Dismuke was born with a heart malformation that required open heart surgery during her first week of life. The birth defect will affect her for a lifetime, as doctors say she will require more surgeries as she grows and powerful prescription drug therapy that will prevent her from ever having children.

Shannon and Kimberly Dismuke did not realize their daughter Taylor’s heart defect could be the result of Kimberly taking Paxil while pregnant. The Dismukes claim they were never told that the anti-depressant Paxil can cause birth defects in pregnant women. During her pregnancy, Kimberly discontinued a heart medication but continued taking Paxil.

“When we found out she was pregnant,” Shannon Dismuke said, “she was on several medications”¦ one thing we did ask was do we need to stay on [Paxil] and we were told yes.”

In September 2005, GlaxoSmithKline released the results of a survey that found an increased risk for pregnant women on Paxil to have children born with heart malformations. The Dismuke’s personal injury attorney says that since neither parent has a family history of birth defects, he believes Taylor’s heart malformation was directly related to Paxil. The case is expected to go to trial sometime in 2007 in Greenville, SC.

Though most Paxil product liability lawsuits assert that people who took the drug were not sufficiently warned in advance of its side effects, GlaxoSmithKline has not issued a Paxil recall.

Source: Angela May, “First South Carolina Paxil Lawsuit,” ABC 4 News, Charleston, SC, December 28, 2006, accessed January 4, 2007.