BMJ  2004;328:108 (10 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7431.108-a

Letter

NSAIDs during pregnancy and risk of miscarriage

True risks or only suspicions?

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

EDITOR—The finding of Li et al of an association between an increased risk of miscarriage and use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) relies on biased data.1 For the same cohort of women, previous analysis showed that exposure to magnetic fields was a risk factor for miscarriage,2 and this variable should have been included. Moreover, 103/170 women had already had a miscarriage at the time of the interview3; this information should also have been taken into account.

With regard to the widespread use of NSAIDs4 a cohort study was performed on 1557 pregnant women (gestational age < 20 weeks) who contacted a drug information centre was performed, collecting follow up data on pregnancy outcome after delivery.5 The NSAID users were 281 (10% aspirin, 90% other anti-inflammatory agents) whereas 1276 used other drugs (11% psychotropic drugs, 10% systemic anti-infective agents), with an average of 2.2 drugs per woman (range . . . [Full text of this article]

Benedetta Schiavetti, research fellow

schiavetti@marionegri.it

Antonio Clavenna, senior research fellow, Rita Campi, statistician, Maurizio Bonati, head

Laboratory for Mother and Child Health and CRIF-Regional Drug Information Centre Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, I-20157 Milan, Italy


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