ArticleDrug safety2026
Switching Patterns of Oral Retinoids to Alternative Medications: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis of Four European Countries.
Article in Drug safety, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
34 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectiveThe European Pregnancy Prevention Program for oral retinoids was updated in 2018, yet its impact on switching to retinoid alternative medications remains unclear. Thus, we aimed to measure its impact on the switching patterns from oral retinoids to retinoid alternative medications in women of childbearing potential in four European countries.
methodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in six databases across four European countries: the Netherlands (NL-PHARMO), Spain (ES-VID and ES-BIFAP), Italy (IT-ARS and IT-Caserta) and Denmark (DK-DNR), covering women of childbearing potential prescribed/dispensed oral retinoid between 2010 and 2020. The utilisation of retinoid alternative medications and switching from oral retinoids to retinoid alternative medications after discontinuation were measured. Changes in the rates of switching before and after implementation of the Pregnancy Prevention Program were analysed using an interrupted time series analysis.
resultsFrom 88,992 women of childbearing potential previously exposed to retinoids, 32.0% (28,446) switched to a retinoid alternative medication over the study period. Overall, ten out of 80 median discontinuers per month switched. Median switching monthly rates ranged from 1.8 to 6.5% and from 1.2 to 2.3% pre-implementation and post-implementation, respectively. For overall switching rates, the interrupted time series analysis revealed a small but statistically significant decrease in slope post-intervention in IT-Caserta (- 0.035%; p < 0.01), ES-VID (- 0.04%; p < 0.01) and ES-BIFAP (- 0.03%; p = 0.02). These changes disappeared when excluding the coronavirus disease 2019 lockdown period from the analysis.
conclusionsThe 2018 risk minimisation measures showed a limited impact on switching patterns, with possible differences between northern and southern countries. Further research is needed to investigate the reasons and choices behind switching, and the impact of the Pregnancy Prevention Program on the utilisation patterns of individual retinoid alternative medications, particularly those with teratogenic potential.
Identifiers
42848129What OpenQuestion holds
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.