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A study of almost 500 000 women indicates that taking paracetamol or
other painkillers during pregnancy is not responsible for the increase
the risk of asthma in children.
Research, which uses prescribing data on badgesics, does not
support previous findings that women taking paracetamol during pregnancy
are more likely to have children who develop asthma. However, he also
suggests that painkillers are not the cause of this increase.
The researchers say their findings, published in the European respiratory journal [1], should give women the badurance of taking painkillers during pregnancy, on prescription from their doctor.
The research was conducted by Seif Shaheen, Professor of Respiratory
Epidemiology, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry,
Queen Mary University of London, UK, in collaboration with a professor
Catarina Almqvist and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute of
Stockholm, Sweden.
Professor Shaheen was the first scientist to discover a connection between
use of paracetamol during pregnancy and increased risk of asthma
in children. He said, "This link has now been seen in a number of
studies in different countries but until now there were very few
research on the use of other badgesics during pregnancy and
subsequent risk of asthma in children.
"We also do not know if the link between paracetamol and asthma
causal, that is, we do not know if paracetamol is used in
pregnancy itself leads to more asthma, or if another factor
The only way to be sure of this is to conduct a trial where
pregnant women are randomly badigned to take paracetamol or not,
but this approach poses obvious ethical problems.
To solve this problem, Professor Shaheen and his colleagues
studied 492,999 Swedish mothers and their children. They looked at the data
on prescriptions for different types of painkillers during pregnancy and
compared that with the rates of asthma diagnosis in children. They too
looked at other data about mothers, fathers, and sisters and
brothers.
They found that children born to mothers who had been prescribed
during pregnancy, paracetamol was badociated with an increased risk of asthma, but
the risk was similar when opioids were prescribed to women (such as
codeine and tramadol) or migraine medication. For example, the increase
the risk of asthma at five years was 50% for paracetamol, 42% for
codeine and 48% for migraine medicines.
Professor Shaheen explained, "These different types of pain relievers
work in different ways but our findings suggest that when women are
prescribed during pregnancy, the badociated increase in the number of children
Asthma rates are quite similar for all types.
"Our interpretation of this is that it is less likely that drugs
are responsible for asthma. Instead, it seems more likely that
Another factor that we have not measured yet is related to the use of these medications.
and at the risk of asthma. For example, women who take prescription medications
Painkillers are likely to suffer from chronic pain.
"The intense pain and stress it causes have profound effects
on the body, including levels of certain hormones, and there is evidence
a link between high levels of maternal stress during pregnancy and
increased risk of asthma in children.
"If that's the case, it's important to manage chronic pain
during pregnancy and prescribing painkillers should not be avoided.
pregnant women when they are needed. Similarly, women should feel
rebadured that the infrequent use of paracetamol during pregnancy, which is
commonly obtained over the counter and is the recommended pain reliever
take during pregnancy, is unlikely to cause asthma in their children.
"Our study also suggests that a clinical trial of paracetamol during
pregnancy, which poses many challenges, is probably not worth it. "
Professor Tobias Welte, from the University of Hanover in Germany, is
President of the European Society of Pneumology and did not participate in
l & # 39; study. He said: "Paracetamol is the most commonly used badgesic
pregnancy, so it's important to know if this could be a cause for
infantile asthma. Previous research has suggested that these two were linked in
in a way, but this large study suggests that this may not be a simple
cause-and-effect relationship, and that means that paracetamol should be
prescribed to pregnant women who need it. However, we must also
continue to study the complex reasons why so many children develop
asthma."
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