TY - JOUR

T1 - Spontaneous abortion and a diet drug containing caffeine and ephedrine

T2 - a study within the Danish national birth cohort

AU - Howards, Penelope P

AU - Hertz-Picciotto, Irva

AU - Bech, Bodil H

AU - Nohr, Ellen A

AU - Andersen, Anne-Marie Nybo

AU - Poole, Charles

AU - Olsen, Jørn

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - BACKGROUND: Medications may be consumed periconceptionally before a woman knows she is pregnant. In this study, the authors evaluate the association of a prescription diet drug (Letigen) containing ephedrine (20 mg) and caffeine (200 mg) with spontaneous abortion (SAB) in the Danish National Birth Cohort.METHODS: Women were recruited during their first prenatal visit from 1996-2002. Pre-conception and early pregnancy medication use was reported on the enrollment form, and pregnancy outcome was determined by linking the mother's Civil Registration Number to the Medical Birth Registry and the National Hospital Discharge Register. Of 97,903 eligible pregnancies, 4,443 ended in SAB between 5 and 20 completed gestational weeks, inclusive. Letigen use was reported for 565 pregnancies. Cox regression models accounting for left truncation were fit to estimate the effect of pre-conception and early pregnancy Letigen use on SAB.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The estimated maternal age-adjusted hazard ratio for SAB was 1.1 (95% confidence interval 0.8-1.6) for any periconceptional Letigen use compared to no periconceptional use.CONCLUSIONS: Although Letigen has high levels of caffeine (the recommended 3 pills/day are approximately equivalent to caffeine from 6 cups of coffee), periconceptional use does not appear to be associated with an appreciably increased hazard of clinically recognized SAB.

AB - BACKGROUND: Medications may be consumed periconceptionally before a woman knows she is pregnant. In this study, the authors evaluate the association of a prescription diet drug (Letigen) containing ephedrine (20 mg) and caffeine (200 mg) with spontaneous abortion (SAB) in the Danish National Birth Cohort.METHODS: Women were recruited during their first prenatal visit from 1996-2002. Pre-conception and early pregnancy medication use was reported on the enrollment form, and pregnancy outcome was determined by linking the mother's Civil Registration Number to the Medical Birth Registry and the National Hospital Discharge Register. Of 97,903 eligible pregnancies, 4,443 ended in SAB between 5 and 20 completed gestational weeks, inclusive. Letigen use was reported for 565 pregnancies. Cox regression models accounting for left truncation were fit to estimate the effect of pre-conception and early pregnancy Letigen use on SAB.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The estimated maternal age-adjusted hazard ratio for SAB was 1.1 (95% confidence interval 0.8-1.6) for any periconceptional Letigen use compared to no periconceptional use.CONCLUSIONS: Although Letigen has high levels of caffeine (the recommended 3 pills/day are approximately equivalent to caffeine from 6 cups of coffee), periconceptional use does not appear to be associated with an appreciably increased hazard of clinically recognized SAB.

KW - Abortion, Spontaneous

KW - Anti-Obesity Agents

KW - Caffeine

KW - Cohort Studies

KW - Denmark

KW - Drug Combinations

KW - Ephedrine

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Pregnancy

KW - Proportional Hazards Models

KW - Regression Analysis

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0050372

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0050372

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 23166844

VL - 7

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 11

M1 - e50372

ER -