plus 4, Study ties common antibiotics with birth defects - Kansas City Star

Study ties common antibiotics with birth defects - Kansas City Star
Antibiotic Use During Pregnancy And Birth Defects: Study Examines ... - Science Daily
Study: Flu Vaccine Effective During Pregnancy - KSAT 12
Council panel to vote on pregnancy clinics bill - Baltimore Sun
Cocaine Use in Pregnancy Linked to Impulsivity in Sons - MedicineNet.com

Study ties common antibiotics with birth defects - Kansas City Star

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 09:10 PM PST

CHICAGO | Researchers studying antibiotics in pregnancy have found a link between birth defects and common drugs used to treat urinary infections.

However, the most-used antibiotics in early pregnancy — penicillins — appear to be the safest.

Bacterial infections themselves can cause problems for the fetus if left unchecked, experts said, so pregnant women shouldn't avoid antibiotics entirely. Instead, women should discuss antibiotics choices with their doctors.

The new study is the first large analysis of antibiotic use in pregnancy. It found that mothers of babies with birth defects were more likely than mothers with healthy babies to report taking two types of antibiotics during pregnancy: sulfa drugs (brand names include Thiosulfil Forte and Bactrim) and urinary germicides called nitrofurantoins (brand names include Furadantin and Macrobid).

It was the first time an association had been seen between urinary tract treatments and birth defects, said lead author Krista Crider, a geneticist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which financed the research.

The study, appearing in November's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, may cause doctors to change the drugs they choose to treat pregnant women with infections. The findings were released Monday.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 13,000 mothers whose infants had birth defects and nearly 5,000 women who lived in the same regions with healthy babies.

The women were interviewed by phone from six weeks to two years after their pregnancies. Those who remembered taking antibiotics during the month before conception through the first three months of pregnancy were identified as exposed to antibiotics.

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Antibiotic Use During Pregnancy And Birth Defects: Study Examines ... - Science Daily

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 09:17 PM PST

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2009) — Penicillin and several other antibacterial medications commonly taken by pregnant women do not appear to be associated with many birth defects, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, other antibiotics, such as sulfonamides and nitrofurantoins, may be associated with several severe birth defects and require additional scrutiny.

Treating infections is critical to the health of a mother and her baby, according to background information in the article. Therefore, bacteria-fighting medications are among the most commonly used drugs during pregnancy. Although some classes of antibiotics appear to have been used safely during pregnancy, no large-scale studies have examined safety or risks involved with many classes of antibacterial medications.

Krista S. Crider, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed data from 13,155 women whose pregnancies were affected by one of more than 30 birth defects (cases). The information was collected by surveillance programs in 10 states as part of the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. The researchers compared antibacterial use before and during pregnancy between these women and 4,941 randomly selected control women who lived in the same geographical regions but whose babies did not have birth defects.

Antibacterial use among all women increased during pregnancy, peaking during the third month. A total of 3,863 mothers of children with birth defects (29.4 percent) and 1,467 control mothers (29.7 percent) used antibacterials sometime between three months before pregnancy and the end of pregnancy.

"Reassuringly, penicillins, erythromycins and cephalosporins, although used commonly by pregnant women, were not associated with many birth defects," the authors write. Two defects were associated with erythromycins (used by 1.5 percent of the mothers whose children had birth defects and 1.6 percent of controls), one with penicillins (used by 5.5 percent of case mothers and 5.9 percent of controls), one with cephalosporins (used by 1 percent of both cases and controls) and one with quinolones (used by 0.3 percent of both cases and controls).

Two medications -- sulfonamides and nitrofurantoins (each used by 1.1 percent of cases and 0.9 percent of controls) -- were associated with several birth defects, suggesting that additional study is needed before they can be safely prescribed to pregnant women.

"Determining the causes of birth defects is problematic," the authors write. "A single defect can have multiple causes, or multiple seemingly unrelated defects may have a common cause. This study could not determine the safety of drugs during pregnancy, but the lack of widespread increased risk associated with many classes of antibacterials used during pregnancy should be reassuring."

The National Birth Defects Prevention Study is funded by a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Journal reference:

Krista S. Crider; Mario A. Cleves; Jennita Reefhuis; Robert J. Berry; Charlotte A. Hobbs; Dale J. Hu. Antibacterial Medication Use During Pregnancy and Risk of Birth Defects: National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2009; 163 (11): 978 DOI: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.188

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Study: Flu Vaccine Effective During Pregnancy - KSAT 12

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 06:04 PM PST

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Council panel to vote on pregnancy clinics bill - Baltimore Sun

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 05:14 PM PST

A Baltimore City Council panel is set to take a key vote today on controversial legislation that would require pregnancy clinics that don't perform abortions or distribute birth control to post signs stating just that.

The legislation would affect four clinics in Baltimore. It has drawn attention from people on both sides of the abortion debate who think the city council bill could become a model for legislation in other cities and towns across the county.

City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake introduced the measure after meeting with abortion rights advocacy groups. These groups complained that some pregnancy clinics provide inaccurate information to women, claiming that abortions are connected to breast cancer, psychological problems and infertility.

"The bill deals with whether women are told up front what the facts are," said Ryan O'Doherty, a spokesman for the city council president. "Women need to know up front what to expect when they go into these centers."

Abortion opponents argue that the bill does not address those concerns, is unnecessary and unfairly targets them. The directors of two Baltimore centers testified that they already post a sign disclosing that abortions and birth control are not provided.

Likewise, Rawlings-Blake is expected to offer an amendment with a similar, sign-posting requirement for those pregnancy centers that don't provide referrals for adoptions.

Councilman James B. Kraft, who chairs the Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committee, will also try today Monday to offer an amendment that requires that clinics disclose that they don't provide information about half a dozen other related concerns, including financial support for new mothers.

Kraft said that his colleagues on the council have been getting hundreds of e-mails. "This is a very big issue that has taken a life of its own here in Baltimore," he said

If the bill is passed out of committee today, it will still need to be voted on twice by the full council before it is sent to the mayor to be signed into law.

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Cocaine Use in Pregnancy Linked to Impulsivity in Sons - MedicineNet.com

Posted: 02 Nov 2009 05:21 PM PST

Cocaine Use in Pregnancy Linked to Impulsivity in Sons

FRIDAY, Oct. 23 (HealthDay News) -- While adult male monkeys exposed to cocaine in the womb have poor impulse control, the same is not true for female monkeys, new research has found.

The male monkeys continued to have poor impulse control 15 years after birth. Impulsivity is a risk factor for drug abuse, said the researchers, who added that their findings could help improve understanding of human drug abuse.

"This is the first time that so many different measures of impulsivity, which is considered a risk factor for drug abuse, have been looked at in the same group of animals," lead investigator Lindsey Hamilton, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said in a university news release.

"We're looking for ways to predict which individuals are going to take drugs during their lives. It was very surprising to see that, even more than a decade after the prenatal cocaine exposure, the monkeys ended up being more impulsive and possibly more susceptible to drug use. It was particularly interesting, however, that this effect was only seen in the males. Something is either protecting the females from the effects of the cocaine exposure in the womb or making the males more susceptible to the lasting effects," Hamilton explained.

Hamilton and colleagues conducted four impulse control tests with male and female monkeys exposed to cocaine in the womb and monkeys with no cocaine exposure.

"The fact that we are seeing differences at all is particularly striking because this is 15 years after the monkeys were exposed in the womb to cocaine. Fifteen years is the equivalent of middle age for monkeys. The fact that fairly large differences are still turning up is fascinating," Hamilton added.

The study was scheduled to be presented Oct. 21 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held Oct. 17 to 21 in Chicago.

There are an estimated 7.5 million children in the United States who were exposed to cocaine while in the womb, and 30,000 to 160,000 infants born each year have been exposed to cocaine in the womb, according to the federal government and previous research. The effects of this exposure on child development aren't clear.

"Whether or not these children who were exposed to cocaine in the womb may be more vulnerable to drug use is a timely question, both because these children are now young adults, a time when a lot of drug experimentation occurs, and because cocaine abuse among young women of childbearing age is a growing problem in this country," Hamilton noted.

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: Wake Forest University School of Medicine, news release, Oct. 21, 2009

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