The evaluation of the teratogenic effect of drug usage in pregnant women who were referred to the department of medical pharmacology of Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Medicine

Aim: This study aims to evaluate the drug usage of pregnant women who has used drugs unintentionally during their pregnancy and has been referred to Department of Medical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Adnan Menderes University for teratogenic consultation. Methods: The study covers the referrals to the department in between 01.01.2010 and 31.12.2013. In the first referral of the pregnant women, a teratogenicity report was prepared based on the answers given in the face to face meeting which were registered in a recording report including the sociodemographic state of the pregnant women and the drugs that have been used. Lateron, these women were called on the phone for the followup evaluation of the outcome of their pregnancies, which were also registered on their pregnancy recording report. In this study, which is a descriptive case series, the sociodemographic data, the drugs that have been used and the outcome of the pregnancy were retrospectively evaluated in terms of teratogenicity based on the pregnancy recording reports. The drugs that have been exposed were assessed according to the classification of FDA and ATC. The data were represented and analysed as mean and percentage. Results: In the study, a total of 244 expectants were evaluated according to their sociodemographic state and drug exposure, and 214 of these expectants were assessed in terms of the outcome of their pregnancies. The referrals were made on avarage at the age of 30±6, in the gestational week of 8.3±4.1 and a 88.9% was made in the first trimester. A 51.7% of the expectants resided in counties and a 44.7% only got a degree from primary school. 69.6% of the expectants started using drugs after their last menstrual period, 20.9% of them were exposed to 5 or more than 5 drugs, 34.3% of the drugs were listed in risky group (D and X) according to FDA classification. According to the 2nd level ATC classification the expectants were found to be most frequently exposed to antibacterial (44%), antidepressant (31%) and antienflammatory-antirheumatic (29%) drugs. 25.7% of the pregnancies were terminated voluntarily or due to medical reasons and 9 of the pregnancies (4.2%) resulted in congenital anomalies. Conclusion: In the examination and treatment of women in fertile period, in differential diagnosis the possibility of pregnancy must be taken into consideration and for the ones who are planned to take medication, contraceptive precautions should be encouraged throughout the treatment. Keywords: Pregnancy, teratogenicity, rational drug use, FDA, ATC