Benzodiazepine use in pregnancy and major malformations or oral clefts

BMJ 1999;319:918 ( 2 October )

Letters

Benzodiazepine use in pregnancy and major malformations or oral clefts

Induced abortions should be included

Pooled results are sensitive to zero transformation used

Quality of primary studies must influence inferences made from meta-analyses

Induced abortions should be included

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Dolovich et al have reported their meta-analysis concerning use of benzodiazepines during the first trimester of pregnancyand the risk of oral clefts or major congenital malformations.¹In the cohort studies no increased risk of congenital malformationswas found, while case-control studies showed an increased riskof both oral clefts and major congenital malformations. The authorsexcluded studies from the meta-analysis if only stillbirths orabortions wereincluded.

The paper missed important information about the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. During the past 10-15 yearsprenatal diagnosis of congenital malformations has increased significantlyin many countries and is often followed by termination of pregnancyif severe malformations are diagnosed.² The Eurocat projectis a European epidemiological programme surveying congenital malformations.The Eurocat registries are population based and based on multiplesources of information; they include information about live births,deaths of fetuses with gestational age $>=$ 20 weeks, and . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Benzodiazepine use in pregnancy and major malformations or oral cleft: meta-analysis of cohort and case-control studies: Lisa R Dolovich, Antonio Addis, J M Régis Vaillancourt, J D Barry Power, Gideon Koren, and Thomas R Einarson
BMJ 1998 317: 839-843. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]