Medical professionals often prescribe oral medicines and talk therapy as ways to treat anxiety disorder. Placebos are also prescribed for pregnant women who are suffering from anxiety disorder. Placebo is a substance containing no medication and given to reinforce a patient’s expectation to get well. Recent studies show that antidepressant Paxil is alittle more helpful than placebos, but it has a number of side effects.

The Newsweek tackles this study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association presenting that SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) can be a little more advantageous than placebo.

However, the harmful side effects of SSRIs like Paxil are still to be considered specifically the birth defects it causes to the child of the patient taking it while pregnant.

Paxil has been the target of litigation for causing various harms to patients including suicide, birth defects, hallucination, abnormal personality changes, unusual mood shifts, hostility, agitation, insomnia, self-harm and other acts of violence.

Several Paxil lawsuits have been filed to recover damages for patients who committed suicide while taking Paxil. The litigations argue that GlaxoSmithKline failed to warn the doctors and consumers about the dangers of taking Paxil.  There was one class action in California that charged the company of concealing the information about Paxil side effects from the public.

Moreover, the company was accused by US governmental institutions of illegally interfering with the release of a generic version of Paxil. This caused other states to pay more for the antidepressant drug in their health programs. In 2006, the company agreed to pay $14 million in settlement of the conflict, to be divided among the affected states.

Hence, seek legal advice if you have been a Paxil victim. This is to find out if you qualify for compensation from the manufacturing company. A number of Paxil Lawsuit is now being filed by lawyers on behalf of claimants. It is also important to report to a medical professional the health damages Paxil has caused you. He/she may assist you to a safer treatment of your depression.