Drug use in pregnancy: one year’s experience

AIM: The aim of this study was to provide retrospective information about the prescribed drugs among pregnant woman who referred to Ege University Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology. MATERIAL-METHOD: A retrospective study was conducted among pregnant woman who referred to our department between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005. Initially, all women were evaluated by an obstetrician and and the effects of the drugs during pregnancy was determined according to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) risk classification system database RESULTS: 345 pregnant women were evaluated during the study. 43 % of the women were referred from Ege University Medical Faculty Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and 24 % from public hospitals, whereas 33% were consigned from doctor offices. 30% of the women were between 25-29 years of age. The most commonly prescribed drugs were anti-infectives (26.6 %), opioid and non-opioid analgesics (18.3%), antidepressants (8.4%) and flu medications (8.2 %). According to the FDA classification 1.4% of the prescribed drugs were in category A, 42.9% were in category B, 42.4% were in category C, 6.7% were in category D and 3.1% were in category X. 83.6% of the pregnant women had medications during first trimester of their pregnancies. Only 10% of the women received a single drug. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals that during their pregnancies an important proportion of women encounter drugs which might have a teratogenic potential. This proportion. can be reduced by interrogation of the patient about pregnancy before prescribing drugs.