Another GlaxoSmithKline lawsuit has just been filed. Did their drug cause a husband’s untimely death?
When Wendy Dolin lost her husband Stewart to suicide, she decided to take action against the company that made a drug he had started taking only a few days prior. Wendy brought a lawsuit against drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the maker of the antidepressant Paxil, and last month a judge sent the case to trial.
Are Antidepressants Dangerous?
Stewart had been struggling with acute anxiety at work and had been subscribed the generic version of the SSRI, called paroxetine, which GSK had developed. Unfortunately, after he began taking the drug, his anxiety only worsened and culminated in his suicide. Wendy’s lawsuit claims that GSK failed to adequately warn Paxil users of a possible effect of taking SSRIs, called akathisia.
What is Akathisia?
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), part of the US National Institutes of Health, describes akathisia as:
The “subjective (feeling of inner restlessness and the urge to move) as well as objective components (rocking while standing or sitting, lifting feet as if marching on the spot and crossing and uncrossing the legs while sitting).”
Stewart’s death led Wendy to investigate akathisia and to create her own website, called MISSD, the Medicine-Induced Suicide Education Foundation in Memory of Stewart Dolin. She believes that akathisia is what caused her husband’s suicidal actions. Wendy said, “What I think is important for (people) to understand, is the person didn’t really want to kill themselves. The drug gave them suicidal thoughts.”
GSK Disputes Any Link to Suicide
The NCBI calls akathisia a frequent and common side effect of antipsychotic drugs. However, Paxil is classified as an antidepressant, not an antipsychotic.
After the federal court’s ruling last month, a GSK spokesperson said:
“The plaintiff claims GSK should be held liable for failing to warn of the risk of suicide in older adults taking Paxil. In this case, however, Mr. Dolin was taking a generic version of Paxil, which is not GSK’s product. In addition, the FDA rejected GSK’s attempt in 2007 to provide the very warning the plaintiff seeks.”
Despite GSK’s dispute of Wendy’s claims, her lawsuit will go forward and the trial is set for sometime in September.
This is not the first time GSK has come under fire. The company has previously faced lawsuits for corporate misconduct and false claims, and there are still several lawsuits pending related to its anti-nausea drug Zofran, which has been linked to birth defects in women who took it while pregnant.
Visit the GlaxoSmithKline page to learn more about the company and other pending lawsuits.
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