On September 27th, 2021,PharmaSafe PhD student Sarah Hjorth Andersen from the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, defended her doctoral thesis "Childhood outcomes after prenatal exposure to analgesics or antibiotics".
Hjorth's supervisors were Professor Hedvig Nordeng, Section for Pharmaceutics and Social Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, Professor Olav Spigset, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, St. Olav University Hospital and Researcher Angela Lupattelli, Section for Pharmaceutics and Social Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, University of Oslo.
Lay summary: Safety of antibiotics and mild painkillers during pregnancy
‘Can I take this medication now that I am pregnant?’, is a question that many health care professionals have met during consultations with pregnant women. Between 60% and 96% of pregnant women use medications. Mild painkillers and antibiotics are the most commonly used. Yet, apart from risks of birth defects, little is known about how these medications can affect the unborn child. This thesis focused on brain development and cancer risk in school-aged children.
Overall, the findings were reassuring, suggesting no increased risk from medication use of short duration. This supports the existing guidelines on use of antibiotics and mild painkillers during pregnancy. In particular, the thesis found that short-term use of mild painkillers does not seem to affect child brain development. For long-term use, more studies are needed.
The thesis also found that the risk of childhood blood cancer (leukaemia) does not seem to differ depending on which of the two most common antibiotics for treatment of urinary tract infections (pivmecillinam or nitrofurantoin) were used during pregnancy.
Lastly, the thesis provided suggestions for researchers about how to improve future studies on medication use in pregnancy and brain development or cancer in childhood.