Bijwerkingen medicijn zelfs merkbaar in kleinkind.*
Corticosteroïden zijn medicijnen die men sinds de zeventiger jaren injecteert bij zwangere vrouwen waarbij de baby duidelijk te vroeg wil komen. Dit gebeurt om de ontwikkeling van de longen bij de foetus te versnellen. Een dosis kan de kans op overleving van de premature baby al flink verhogen. Vaak worden meerdere injecties gegeven. Uit een guinea pig onderzoek blijkt nu dat na 3 injecties niet alleen de jongen van deze dieren hersenafwijkingen en gedragsstoornissen vertonen doch zelfs hun nakomelingen. Jongen vertoonden weinig interesse om nieuw dingen te ontdekken of hyperactiviteit en het maken van vreemde geluiden.
Dit onderzoek nu veroorzaakt wel een dilemma, want van de ene kant redt dit medicijn levens terwijl van de andere kant de bijwerkingen generaties lang kunnen vootduren.
Pregnancy
drug can affect grandkids too
A
drug often given to pregnant women to help their babies mature enough to survive
can have effects on the subsequent generation, a guinea pig study finds
DOCTORS
treating a woman at risk of having a premature baby may inadvertently be
affecting her future grandchildren as well. A study in guinea pigs suggests that
a drug commonly given to pregnant women to help their babies mature enough to
survive can also affect the brains and behaviour of their grandchildren too. The
finding raises a difficult dilemma for doctors, for while the drug undoubtedly
saves lives, its side effects could last for generations.
Babies
normally spend 40 weeks in the womb, but some can survive even if they are born
15 or 16 weeks early. However, their lungs lack enough of a substance called a
surfactant to breathe unassisted. So since the 1970s, doctors have been
injecting women at risk of having a very premature baby with synthetic
glucocorticoid drugs, such as betamethasone, which hasten the development of a
fetus's lungs.
A
single dose cuts the death rates of premature babies by up to 40%, but often a
number of treatments are given.
Scientists
have now found alarming side effects of the drugs in guinea pigs, which give
birth to similarly mature offspring as humans.
The
young of animals given the equivalent of three injections of betamethasone had
abnormalities such as hyperactivity.
Human
babies whose mothers are given multiple doses of the drug have also shown signs
of being hyperactive. But the guinea pig study showed that the drug affected the
next generation too.
"When
affected female offspring were mated with normal males, their young also had
physiological and behavioural abnormalities," New Scientist magazine
reported.
Male
25-day-old pups who were the grandchildren of pregnant guinea pigs given the
drug showed little interest in exploring new environments. Females, on the other
hand, were hyperactive and produced strange vocal noises.
John Newnham, from the University of Western Australia in Perth, who specialises in treating premature babies, described the findings as "terrifying beyond comprehension". However he pointed out that the effects might not happen after one dose of the drug. (November 2005)
