Drugs During Pregnancy

Introduction.- The alert clinician.-  Thalidomide.- Anticonvulsants.-  Warfarin.- Drugs for thyrotoxicosis.- Retinoids.- Mycophenolate mofetil.- Animal experiments and adverse drug reaction reports.- Animal experiments.- Adverse drug reaction reports.- Some epidemiological principles.-  Population studies.-  Case-control studies.- Cohort studies.-  Comparison between case-control and cohort studies.- Nested case-control studies.- The sibling approach.- Pregnancy outcomes with the exception of congenital malformations.- Maternal pregnancy complications.- Spontaneous abortion.- Stillbirth and infant death.- Gestational duration and birth weight.- Intrauterine growth.- Other body dimensions.- Perinatal morbidity.- Long term effects.- Congenital malformations.- Definition.-  Major and minor malformations.-  Single and multiple malformations.- .- Causes of congenital malformations.-  Sources of information on malformations.- Prenatal diagnosis and induced abortion.- Grouping of congenital malformations .- Identification of maternal use of drugs.- Questionnaires or interviews in a case-control setting.- Prospective randomized studies.- Teratology Information Services (TIS).- Prospective studies of pregnant populations.- Pregnancy registers.-  The Swedish Medical Birth Register.-  Prescription registers.- The effect of errors in drug exposure ascertainment.- Information on dosage of drugs used .- The problem of confounding.- Mediating factors should not be adjusted for.- Some common and sometimes important confounders.- Interaction between confounders.- Residual confounding.- Statistics .- Risk estimates.- Is the odd ratio or risk ratio statistically significant?.- The confidence interval.- Expected numbers.- Dealing with confounders.- Survival analysis.- Power analysis.- The p value and mass significance.- Lumping or splitting? Lumping or splitting of drug

Bengt Källén is a professor emeritus of embryology at Lund University in Sweden and head of the Tornblad Institute for embryology. He has been working in birth defect epidemiology since the 1960s, and served from 1964 to 2015 as a consultant at the National Board of Health and Welfare in Stockholm, mainly focusing on the national registration of congenital malformations and analyses of reproduction outcome after exposure to various influences, including drugs. He is one of the founders of the Swedish Register of Congenital Malformations, and of the International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Monitoring Systems. He has published ca. 400 scientific papers, including numerous articles on congenital malformations, the effects of maternal drug use during pregnancy, and in vitro fertilization.

"This book addresses the methodology involved in evaluating drug studies. It is intended to highlight issues involved in studies of drugs in pregnancy. It is short and concise and an excellent contribution. The book is written for those with an interest in obstetrical drug studies. This can be physicians, epidemiologists, and other students." (Anthony Shanks, Doody's Book Reviews, December, 2016)