Feb 15, 2021
FRIDAY, Feb. 12, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Opioid use in early pregnancy is associated with a small increase in risk for cleft palate but no increase in risk for most major congenital malformations, and macrolide use in pregnancy is not associated with increased risk for major birth defects in offspring, according to two studies published online Feb. 10 in
The BMJ.
Brian T. Bateman, M.D., from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined the risks of first trimester exposure to prescription opioids for major congenital malformations. Data were included for 1,602,580 publicly insured (MAX) and 1,177,676 commercially insured (MarketScan) pregnant women, of whom 4.4 and 1.1 percent, respectively, had two or more dispensations of any opioid during the first trimester. The researchers found that the absolute risk of malformations was 41.0 versus 32.0 per 1,000 pregnancies exposed to opioids versus unexposed in the MAX cohort and 42.6 versus 37.3 per 1,000 in the MarketScan cohort. The pooled unadjusted relative risk estimates were increased for all outcomes, but were attenuated after adjustment (relative risk for malformations overall: 1.06; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.10).