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In 1992, Paxil entered the antidepressant market.  It was the time when antidepressants were in vogue.  The drug is categorized under a class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. The SSRI’s are breakthrough drugs because they cause little side effects.  As such, it is practically impossible for the drug to cause overdose. Thus, it makes sense that no depressed person be given a drug that causes overdose. Despite being a latecomer in the SSRI market, Paxil became instantly successful by gaining an FDA thumbs-up for each specific condition like “social anxiety disorder” and “general anxiety disorder” – both conditions considered very rare at the time.  Confident of the drug’s efficacy, the marketers of Paxil ran add campaigns on Paxil that encourage individuals to take the drug if they had felt general anxiety.  This resulted to sales of Paxil soaring high.

The major selling point of Paxil commercials speaks of the drug’s lack of side effects and that the drug is not addictive. In fact, scores of doctors and pharmacies will vouch the same thing. However, contradictory Oweverto such claim, several patients under Paxil medication found the drug quite hard to quit. Even by slow reduced doses and withdrawal from the drug, many patients complained of severe diarrhea, stomach pains, anger, intense anxiety, migraines, and a strange electrical sensation during head or eyes movement. These side effects however stop upon discontinuity; thus, the symptoms were dismissed as simply temporary. Strangely, the symptoms are diagnosed after a few months as a recurring depression, which would entail the prescription of an antidepressant – again – such as Paxil.

Recently, an independent study revealed that as much as 50% of Paxil users experience severe withdrawal from the drug. Although other drugs in the same class such as Prozac and Zoloft cause similar withdrawal reactions, none of these bring reactions of such scale. One theory of such dissimilarity could be that Paxil has a shorter half-life than the rest of antidepressants in its class, and more addicting substances usually possess short half-lives. The brain, in this sense, is more inclined to slow adjustments and cannot tolerate fast changing chemicals.

In Britain and the United States, class action lawsuits have been filed against Paxil. Nonetheless, the manufacturer of Paxil insists that the drug cannot be a habit-forming, addictive drug.  Because of this stand, no changes have been made on its packaging nor in its advertising despite the rising numbers of addiction cases. Doctors and pharmacies have not been helpful with patient complaints, as they simply believe in Paxil’s non-addictive properties as per labeling and advertising.