Relation between the ingestion of benzodiazepines during pregnancy and the appearance of oral clefts in the newborn: a case-control study
Rodríguez Pinilla, E.; Salvador Peral, J.; García Alonso, F.; Martínez Frías, M.L.
Medicina Clinica 87(18): 741-743
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-7753 PMID: 3796117 Document Number: 284586
We have evaluated the hypothesis that exposure to benzodiazepines (BNZ) during the first trimester of pregnancy increases the risk of oral clefts (harelip and/or cleft palate) in the newborn (NB). We have used for the study the data from the registry of the Spanish Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECEMC), which is designed as a case-control study. We have collected information about 512 NBs with this type of congenital malformation, and about 9347 control NBs without malformations, born between April 1976 and September 1984. Among the cases with oral clefts there was 1.8% pregnancies exposed to BNZ while in the control group such exposure was observed in 0.5% of the pregnancies, which corresponds to a relative risk of 3.3. This means that babies born to mothers who took BNZ during the first trimester of pregnancy are 3.3 times more likely to have this type of malformation than babies born to non-exposed mothers.