Opioids May Play a Role in Congenital Problems - NYTimes.com

Women who take codeine, oxycodone and other opioid pain drugs early in pregnancy may be exposing their babies to a higher risk of birth defects, a new government study suggests.

Though the overall numbers were small, babies whose mothers took opioids were considerably more likely than others to have congenital problems, including a potentially fatal syndrome in which the left part of the heart does not develop completely; spina bifida, in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close; and gastroschisis, in which the intestines stick out of the body.

The study, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was one of the largest to examine the effects of opioid use during pregnancy. It appeared last month in The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

It used data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study about mothers in 10 states who gave birth from 1997 to 2005. Information was drawn from hourlong computer-assisted telephone interviews with the mothers.

Of 17,449 mothers whose babies had a birth defect, 454, or 2.6 percent, reported treatment with opioid analgesics a month before pregnancy or during the three months after conception. In the comparison group of 6,701 women, the rate of opioid treatment was 2.0 percent.

"Opioids and their receptors act as growth regulators during embryologic development, which may explain our findings," said Cheryl S. Broussard, the paper's lead author.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/health/research/22risks.html?hpw