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Paternal drug use: before and during pregnancy
Ineke Crijns1, Jens Bos, Marissa Knol
1University of Groningen, Department of PharmacoEpidemiology & PharmacoEconomics, Groningen, The Netherlands. hj.crijns@cbg-meb.nl
Expert Opinion on Drug Safety
|March 24, 2012
Summary
Paternal drug use is common, with 73% of fathers using medications before and during pregnancy. This highlights the need for organizations to track paternal drug exposure for better understanding of potential effects.
Area of Science:
- Reproductive Health
- Pharmacology
- Public Health
Background:
- Paternal factors, including drug use, can influence pregnancy outcomes.
- Limited data exists on the prevalence and patterns of paternal medication use around conception and during pregnancy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the prevalence of drug use by fathers prior to and during pregnancy.
- To analyze drug use patterns in relation to the number of pregnancies.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from Dutch community pharmacies linking fathers to children.
- Calculated prevalence of 15 major drug groups per trimester (1 preconception, 3 during pregnancy).
- Analyzed drugs with potential teratogenic or semen-harming effects for two trimesters before conception using descriptive statistics.
Main Results:
- 73% of fathers used one or more drugs during the four trimesters studied.
- Per trimester drug use ranged from 35-39%, peaking in the third trimester.
- Anti-inflammatory and antirheumatic products were most frequent; SSRIs were used by 1.4% of fathers preconception.
Conclusions:
- A significant proportion of fathers (73%) use medications before and during pregnancy, with increasing use towards the third trimester.
- Enhanced data collection on paternal drug use by organizations like EUROCAT and (EN)(O)TIS is recommended to improve knowledge of potential effects.
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