SynthesisPharmacoepidemiology and drug safety2011
Prescription drug use during pregnancy in developed countries: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 99 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
99 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Estimating the Prevalence of Prescribed Medication Use in Pregnancy with a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Drug safety · 2026Pooled it
- Prenatal exposure to medication and risk of childhood cancer - a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC cancer · 2025Pooled it
- Maternal Exposure to Medications and the Risk of Congenital and Early-Onset Hearing Loss in Children: A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis.Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence of systemic antibacterial use during pregnancy worldwide: A systematic review.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Comprehension of Pictograms Demonstrating the Risk of Medication Use During Pregnancy: A Systematic Review.Maternal and child health journal · 2022Pooled it
- Herbal Medicinal Product Use During Pregnancy and the Postnatal Period: A Systematic Review.Obstetrics and gynecology · 2019Pooled it
- In utero exposure to medications and congenital eye anomalies.BMJ open ophthalmology · 2026Article
- Prescribed medicines among pregnant women attending health facilities in Eritrea: patterns, safety, and determinants.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Assessing the role of Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as a tool for addressing inequality in access to medications and allocation of public funds for pregnant women.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Article
- Use of nervous system medications with fetal risk before and during pregnancy in an Argentine social security systemRevista colombiana de obstetricia y ginecologia · 2025Article
- Points to Consider on the Use of Medicines in Pregnancy Throughout the Product Lifecycle Based on Global Regulatory Guidance.Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science · 2025Review
- Real-world antibiotic utilization during pregnancy in Italy: a multiregional retrospective population-based study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Maternal Demographic Patterns in Medication use During Pregnancy: A Nationwide Register Study.Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology · 2025Article
- Communicating medication risks in pregnancy: Towards shared decision making.Frontiers in drug safety and regulation · 2025Article
- Medication use from conception to the first antenatal appointment: agreement between maternal self-report to midwife and prescribing records in Northern Ireland in 2011-2016.International journal of population data science · 2025Article
- Accelerating adverse pregnancy outcomes research amidst rising medication use: parallel retrospective cohort analyses for signal prioritization.BMC medicine · 2024Article
- Medication use before and during pregnancy in Japan: the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project Birth and Three-Generation Cohort Study.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2024Article
- Use of medication in pregnancy on the rise: Study on 1.4 million Danish pregnancies from 1998 to 2018.Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2024Article
39 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeTo review the literature describing patterns of outpatient prescription drug use during pregnancy by therapeutic category, potential for fetal harm, and overall.
methodsWe conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature published from 1989 to 2010. We included studies evaluating individual-level exposures to prescription medicines during pregnancy. We selected only studies conducted in developed (Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development) countries and published in English.
resultsPublished drug utilization studies reveal wide variation in estimates of overall prescription drug use in pregnancy (27-93% of pregnant women filling at least one prescription excluding vitamins and minerals). Among studies of similar design, estimates were lowest in Northern European countries (44-47%) and highest in France (93%) and Germany (85%). Measured rates of use of contraindicated medicines in pregnancy ranged from 0.9% (Denmark, 1991-1996) to 4.6% (USA, 1996-2000). The use of medicines with positive evidence of risk ranged from 2.0% (Italy, 2004) to 59.3% (France, 1996).
conclusionAvoidable inconsistencies in study design and reporting attenuate conclusions that can be drawn from the literature on antenatal drug utilization. Nevertheless, the body of published research shows that antenatal prescription drug use is common, with many studies finding that a majority of women use one or more prescription medicine during pregnancy. Similarly, studies consistently report the use of drugs recognized as having potential risks in pregnancy. Given this widespread use, it is particularly important to develop standards for calculating and reporting antenatal exposures to improve the value of future research in this area.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.