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Drug risk for descendents of premature births

Date published: 30/12/2005

A new study has found that glucocorticoid drugs given to women at risk of giving birth prematurely may affect the brain development and behaviour of the women's grandchildren. The study by University of Toronto researchers and reported in New Scientist magazine involved giving the drugs to pregnant guinea pigs. In humans the drug is used to speed up the development of the lungs in the unborn child.

The researchers found that behavioural problems, such as hyperactivity, were more likely in both the guinea pig's offspring and the next generation. Professor Henry Halliday, an expert on perinatal medicine at Belfast's Royal Maternity Hospital, told the BBC News: "This research in guinea pigs seems to confirm that these behavioural problems may pass down the generations after repeat dosing.

"Steroids are powerful dugs with widespread effects throughout the body; they do not act at a single site and they also have genomic effects which may be life-lasting. "They should not be given to humans without careful consideration of risks versus benefits." "But in the case of threatened preterm birth before 34 weeks' gestation the benefits would appear to outweigh the risks."

Synthetic glucocorticoid drugs, such as betamethasone, have been used for more than thirty years and have proved effective, with a single dose able to cut the death rate of premature babies by up to 40 per cent.

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