USE OF PSYCHOTROPIC-DRUGS DURING PREGNANCY - A REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE DRUG-USE IN PREGNANCY (DUP) STUDY

Drug Use in Pregnancy (DUP) is an international epidemiological survey of drug use in pregnancy conducted from 1988 to 1990 in 148 maternity wards, representing the general delivery practices of 22 countries. D ata on exposure of pregnant women to psychotropic drugs, the indicatio ns for their use and their correlation with maternal characteristics a re reported. Of the 14,778 women interviewed, 520 (3.5%) reported 562 courses of psychotropic drugs. Benzodiazepines (BDZ) accounted for the greatest number of the exposures (444/520 women); neuroleptics and an tidepressants were prescribed to tiny minorities of women (83 and 17 r espectively), mostly in those few countries were the overall prevalenc e of use of those drugs was highest. Throughout the majority of the ot her countries, overall rates were in the low range and were rather het erogeneous. With the exception of small clusters of ''unexpected'' ind ications, prescriptions of BDZ were found to be consistent with the ta rget symptoms of anxiety and insomnia; chronic use was reported in 31/ 444 women. The study was not targeted to the detection of malformation s; no suspected clustering was found, however, among the 130 women exp osed during the first trimester of pregnancy. The collaborative networ k now established provides a framework for periodically replicated sur veillance to monitor the evolution of this field of knowledge and care in order to provide reliable information for women and society.