Advice on Drug Safety in Pregnancy

Drug safety: Pregnancy rating classifications and controversies.

This contribution consolidates data on international pregnancy rating classifications, including the former US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Swedish, and Australian classification systems, as well as the evidence-based medicine system, and discusses discrepancies among them. It reviews the new Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Rule (PLLR) that replaced the former FDA labeling system with n...

Computerised Advice on Drug Dosage Decisions in Childhood Leukaemia: A Method and a Safety Strategy

Currently over 95% of children who are diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in the UK are enrolled into Medical Research Council trials. The trial protocol specifies that following initial treatment there is a 2-3 year maintenance period during which drug dosage decisions are made weekly according to a set of pre-defined rules. These rules are complex, and there is a significant frequen...

Drug safety during pregnancy : can we analyze teratogenic drug prescriptions ?

Objectives: To assess the extent to which teratogenic drugs are prescribed during pregnancy and to investigate. the feasibility of an alert system at the point of prescription, in order to improve drug safety during pregnancy. Methods: We establish a reference list of teratogenic drugs by merging lists of teratogenic drugs published in the literature, extract drug prescriptions to pregnant wome...

CDC gives advice on tissue safety.

Considerations for smoking advice in pregnancy

Cigarette smoking in pregnancy was the single most important preventable factor identified when determinants of birth weight were studied in 375 pregnancies. Current professional intervention was not effective in reducing cigarette consumption in pregnancy in these mothers in Londonderry, of whom only 19 (5%) became ex-smokers. Present health education, which emphasises impaired fetal growth an...