Risks: Pain Drugs May Lead to Birth Defects

By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: March 17, 2011

Women who take codeine, oxycodone and other opioid pain drugs early in pregnancy may be exposing their babies to a higher risk of birth defects, a new government study suggests.

Though the overall numbers were small, babies whose mothers took opioids were considerably more likely than others to have congenital problems, including a potentially fatal syndrome in which the left part of the heart does not develop completely; spina bifida, in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close; and gastroschisis, in which the intestines stick out of the body.

The study, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was one of the largest to examine the effects of opioid use during pregnancy. It appeared last month in The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

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