Executive Summary

Women who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs during their first trimester may be more likely to give birth to babies with congenital defects, especially cardiac septal defects, according to a study in August's Birth Defects Research Part B. "Many pregnant women get prescriptions for NSAIDs during their first trimester, and even more - up to 15% - take over-the-counter versions of these drugs," an Aug. 24 press release states. Benjamin Ofori, MD, Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, et al., gathered information from three Quebec administrative databases and included 36,387 pregnant women in their nested case-control study. Among the 1,056 women who filled a prescription for NSAIDs early in their pregnancy, 8.8% had babies with congenital anomalies, the study finds. Of the 35,331 women who did not fill prescriptions for NSAIDs, 7% had congenital anomalies, according to the study. Additionally, the study found the proportion of infants with multiple congenital anomalies among mothers who filled an NSAID prescription in the first trimester was 16.1% compared to 14.2% for those who did not...