Dangers of Using Paxil During Pregnancy - Infographic

Paxil is an antidepressant that is being used today for both men and women. I know of two people taking this prescription anti-depressant but thankfully both are male and therefore have very little chance of becoming pregnant no matter how promiscuous they are or how risky their birth control methods seem to be, but I digress…

I must admit I didn’t know the dangers of using Paxil during pregnancy, and while some might perceive this danger to be slight, I would assume any soon-to-be parents would want to be aware of the facts and possible side effect or birth defects using Paxil may cause.

What is Paxil?

The infographic sets the table and gives a brief amount of text explaining Paxil’s use, and what it is. The Paxil pill is shown to help alleviate a host of symptoms from panic disorder to OCD to depression. They use a pie-chart themed pill to show the breakdown, which is a nice graphical touch.

The Cost of Paxil

They data shows how Paxil stacks up again the big hitters in the antidepressant market such as Zoloft, the top selling U.S. antidepressant and the previous top seller, Prozac. The price of Paxil is highest in the United States and lowest in France, which I can assume is related to our health care insurance issues. But the big number, both literally and figuratively is 1 billion, which is the amount of money GlaxoSmithKilne, manufacturer of Paxil has paid out in law suits. Don’t feel too bad for Glaxo, they made 37 billion.

Depression vs Birth

The reason for antidepressant usage is show in simple smiley or frowning faces: 1 in 4 women suffer depression while pregnant and therefore take antidepressants such as Paxil. Here is where the really bad news happens, women on Paxil are 6 times as likely to give birth to babies with Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension, PPHN. The graphic image of the child in womb follows suit with the bold graphics used throughout. The single baby is in stark contrast to the 6 babies on the right.

The final graphics used are simple illustrations of the heart with circular callouts to the defect in the heart cause by using Paxil, which looks like a major problem, but I’m not a doctor, just a designer.

The Paxil infographic follows a theme and style and sticks with it. The infographic design is consistent and the color choices are pleasant. The text with the VSD heart graphic is s mustard yellow and hard to read, but other than that, I have few complaints. I did catch a typo, but only one. Graphic elemenst were followed consistnatly, such as the bent corner backgrounds on the subheads, which is nice to see.

The subject matter is unpleasant but the presentation and information made for a smooth “delivery!”

Design: B+
A missed color choice on a subhead kept this from being an A design. Great job and creative use of graphics.

Information: B
The information should have included how serious the heart defect was, such as mortality rates or success for a cure. I had to deduct for the typo. So few words…

VIA: Paxil Birth Defect