Drugs in Pregnancy
Drugs in Pregnancy specialist advisory service
Introduction
The Regional Drug and Therapeutics Centre provides information and advice on the effect of
drugs and the therapeutic options during pregnancy. The service is staffed by a
multidisciplinary team including pharmacists and medicines information scientists. The UK
Teratology Information Service is also based at the RDTC and all enquiry answering staff
receive UKTIS training and support.
The types of enquiry answered include:
The effect of inadvertent early exposure to a drug, in advance of knowledge of the pregnancy
The therapeutic options available to a patient who needs to continue treatment for a particular
indication such as epilepsy
The therapeutic options available to treat an acute condition that occurs during pregnancy
such as threadworm
The effect of an acute or chronic exposure to a particular drug during pregnancy such as an
antibiotic
Advice to support pre-pregnancy counselling
We do not offer advice or information in relation to the toxic effect of drugs in overdose or
chemical exposures during pregnancy. This is offered by the National Poisons Information
Service (NPIS) in the first instance and is supported by UKTIS.
Who can use the service?
The service is provided to all health care professionals within the NHS but is primarily used by
medicines information pharmacists after they have researched their standard resources. It is
expected that local MI centres would research answers in the first instance and refer to the
RDTC Newcastle if necessary.
How to make enquiries
The drugs in pregnancy specialist advisory service is available between 9am and 5.00pm
Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays.
Those contacting the Centre from within our MI Northern and Yorkshire Region can submit
enquiries by telephone, fax, writing, e-mail, or via our online enquiry form.
Tel. 0191 260 6198 (09:00 - 17:00 Mon to Fri)
Fax. 0191 260 6192 (09:00 - 17:00 Mon to Fri)
E-mail. nyrdtc.di@ncl.ac.uk
Those contacting the Centre from outside this region can call 0844 892 0909 UKTIS.
Unfortunately we are not currently able to answer emailed enquiries from outside our MI
region.
Information required when making an enquiry
When contacting the centre with an enquiry, the following background information will be
required to enable a full answer to be given:
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Enquiry
o Reason for the enquiry
o Is it patient specific?
Pregnancy:
o Is the patient currently pregnant?
o Stage of pregnancy in weeks based on Last Menstrual Period (LMP).
o If not, is it a prospective or retrospective enquiry?
o Have any investigations or scans been performed?
Drug in question:
o Dose, frequency, indication, route.
o Currently taking this drug, thinking of taking or has taken it at some stage
during this pregnancy?
Background risk factors
o Maternal age, general health and lifestyle.
o Other medicines and/or medical conditions?
o Obstetric history.
o Has the woman had any previous pregnancies?
o Were there any miscarriages or malformations in previous pregnancies?
o Did she take this drug during previous pregnancies?
o Family obstetric history
Risk v benefit:
o Is drug therapy necessary? Have other therapies/medicines been tried?
There are limited data on the effect of drugs in pregnancy. However, good quality patient
specific data from enquirers will better allow provision of a full risk assessment for each case.
If referring to UKTIS for further information, ensure you have GP or Consultant contact details
and a patient identifier that will distinguish the patient if follow up is required.
Medicines information pharmacists should have looked in standard medicines information
reference resources before calling the service. However, they may need to call for clarification
of information found in those resources e.g. manufacturer’s information (Summary of Product
Characteristics), Drugs during Pregnancy and Lactation (Schaefer), UKTIS monographs on
Toxbase (www.toxbase.org ) etc. They may also contact us where information in the standard
information resources is lacking.
Sources of Information
The centre has access to a wide range of standard medicines information textbooks, journals
and databases. We also hold specialist teratology textbooks, past enquiries and also the use
of specialist databases.
Guidance
The centre has prepared the following guidance documents:
UK Teratology Information Service (UKTIS) Monographs are available on Toxbase® which all
NHS healthcare professionals can access via free registration (www.toxbase.org).
Summaries of these UKTIS monographs are available on the National electronic Library for
Medicines website (www.nelm.nhs.uk).