DRUG INTOXICATION DURING PREGNANCY - A STUDY WITH CENTRAL REGISTRIES

By linking two health registries, one on all infants born and one on h ospital discharges, 424 infants were identified born after pregnancies when the mothers had been hospitalized for an intoxication, mainly wi th drugs. In 126 infants, exposure had occurred during the organ formi ng period, 99 of them because of suicidal or accidental overdosage of drugs; 70 of these were psychoactive drugs. None of the 70 infants had a congenital malformation, but the upper 95% confidence limit include s a 10% risk increase. An effect on low birth weight rate was seen onl y after drug complications following medical treatments during weeks 1 2 to 30. The study supports an earlier study from Hungary that reporte d that drug intoxication during pregnancy does not carry a substantial teratogenic risk.