Medication use in pregnancy: a cross-sectional, multinational web-based study

Objectives: Intercountry comparability between studies on medication use in pregnancy is difficult due to dissimilarities in study design and methodology. his study aimed to examine patterns and factors associated with medications use in pregnancy from a multinational perspective, with emphasis on type of medication utilised and indication for use. Design: Cross-sectional, web-based study performed within the period from 1 October 2011 to 29 February 2012. Uniform collection of drug utilisation data was performed via an anonymous online questionnaire. Setting: Multinational study in Europe (Western, Northern and Eastern), North and South America and Australia. Participants: Pregnant women and new mothers with children less than 1 year of age. Primary and secondary outcome measures: Prevalence of and factors associated with medication use for acute/short-term illnesses, chronic/long-term disorders and over-the-counter (OTC) medication use. Results: The study population included 9459 women, of which 81.2% reported use of at least one medication (prescribed or OTC) during pregnancy. Overall, OTC medication use occurred in 66.9% of the pregnancies, whereas 68.4% and 17% of women reported use of at least one medication for treatment of ute/short-term illnesses and chronic/long-term disorders, respectively. The extent of self-reported medicated illnesses and types of medication used by indication varied across regions, especially in relation to urinary tract infections, depression or OTC nasal sprays. Women with higher age or lower educational level, housewives or women with an unplanned pregnancy were those most often reporting use of medication for chronic/long-term disorders. Immigrant women in Western (adjusted OR (aOR): 0.55, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.87) and Northern Europe (aOR: 0.50, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.83) were less likely to report use of medication for chronic/long-term disorders during pregnancy than nonimmigrants. Conclusions: In this study, the majority of women in Europe, North America, South America and Australia used at least one medication during pregnancy. There was a substantial inter-region variability in the types of medication used

Candesartan does not activate PPAR(γ) and its target genes in early gestation trophoblasts

Angiotensin II receptor 1 blockers are commonly used to treat hypertension in women of childbearing age. While the fetotoxic effects of these drugs in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy are well documented, their possible impacts on placenta development in early gestation are unknown. Candesartan, a member of this group, also acts as a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) agonist, a key regulator shown to be important for placental development. We have previously shown that trophoblasts do not express the candesartan target-receptor angiotensin II type 1 receptor AGTR1. This study investigated the possible role of candesartan on trophoblastic PPARγ and its hallmark target genes in early gestation. Candesartan did not affect the PPARγ protein expression or nuclear translocation of PPARγ. To mimic extravillous trophoblasts (EVTs) and cytotrophoblast/syncytiotrophoblast (CTB/SCT) responses to candesartan, we used trophoblast cell models BeWo (for CTB/SCT) and SGHPL-4 (EVT) cells as well as placental explants. In vitro, the RT-qPCR analysis showed no effect of candesartan treatment on PPARγ target genes in BeWo or SGHPL-4 cells. Treatment with positive control rosiglitazone, another PPARγ agonist, led to decreased expressions of (LEP) and (PPARG1) in BeWo cells and an increased expression of PPARG1 in SGHPL-4 cells. Our previous data showed early gestation-placental AGTR1 expression in fetal myofibroblasts only. In a CAM assay, AGTR1 was stimulated with angiotensin II and showed increased on-plant vessel outgrowth. These results suggest candesartan does not negatively affect PPARγ or its target genes in human trophoblasts. More likely, candesartan from maternal serum may first act on fetal-placental AGTR1 and influence angiogenesis in the placenta, warranting further research

Structural Integration in Language and Music: Evidence for a Shared System.

In this study, we investigate whether language and music share cognitive resources for structural processing. We report an experiment that used sung materials and manipulated linguistic complexity (subject-extracted relative clauses, object-extracted relative clauses) and musical complexity (in-key critical note, out-of-key critical note, auditory anomaly on the critical note involving a loudness increase). The auditory-anomaly manipulation was included in order to test whether the difference between in-key and out-of-key conditions might be due to any salient, unexpected acoustic event. The critical dependent measure involved comprehension accuracies to questions about the propositional content of the sentences asked at the end of each trial. The results revealed an interaction between linguistic and musical complexity such that the difference between the subject- and object-extracted relative clause conditions was larger in the out-of-key condition than in the in-key and auditory-anomaly conditions. These results provide evidence for an overlap in structural processing between language and music

Women’s beliefs about medicines and adherence to pharmacotherapy in pregnancy: Opportunities for community pharmacists?

Background During pregnancy women might weigh benefits of treatment against potential risks to the unborn child. However, non-adherence to necessary treatment can adversely affect both mother and child. To optimize pregnant women’s beliefs and medication adherence, community pharmacists are ideally positioned to play an important role in primary care. Objective This narrative review aimed to summarize the evidence on 1) pregnant women’s beliefs, 2) medication adherence in pregnancy, and 3) community pharmacists’ counselling during pregnancy. Method Three search strategies were used in Medline and Embase to find original studies evaluating women’s beliefs, medication adherence and community pharmacists’ counselling during pregnancy. All original descriptive and analytic epidemiological studies performed in Europe, North America and Australia, written in English and published from 2000 onwards were included. Results We included 14 studies reporting on women’s beliefs, 11 studies on medication adherence and 9 on community pharmacists’ counselling during pregnancy. Women are more reluctant to use medicines during pregnancy and tend to overestimate the teratogenic risk of medicines. Risk perception varies with type of medicine, level of health literacy, education level and occupation. Furthermore, low medication adherence during pregnancy is common. Finally, limited evidence showed current community pharmacists’ counselling is insufficient. Barriers hindering pharmacists are insufficient knowledge and limited access to reliable information. Conclusion Concerns about medication use and non-adherence are widespread among pregnant women. Community pharmacists’ counselling during pregnancy is insufficient. Further education, training and research are required to support community pharmacists in fulfilling all the opportunities they have when counselling pregnant women

Genetic Control of a Central Pattern Generator: Rhythmic Oromotor Movement in Mice Is Controlled by a Major Locus near Atp1a2

Fluid licking in mice is a rhythmic behavior that is controlled by a central pattern generator (CPG) located in a complex of brainstem nuclei. C57BL/6J (B6) and DBA/2J (D2) strains differ significantly in water-restricted licking, with a highly heritable difference in rates (h2≥0.62) and a corresponding 20% difference in interlick interval (mean ± SEM = 116.3±1 vs 95.4±1.1 ms). We systematically quantified motor output in these strains, their F1 hybrids, and a set of 64 BXD progeny strains. The mean primary interlick interval (MPI) varied continuously among progeny strains. We detected a significant quantitative trait locus (QTL) for a CPG controlling lick rate on Chr 1 (Lick1), and a suggestive locus on Chr 10 (Lick10). Linkage was verified by testing of B6.D2-1D congenic stock in which a segment of Chr 1 of the D2 strain was introgressed onto the B6 parent. The Lick1 interval on distal Chr 1 contains several strong candidate genes. One of these is a sodium/potassium pump subunit (Atp1a2) with widespread expression in astrocytes, as well as in a restricted population of neurons. Both this subunit and the entire Na+/K+-ATPase molecule have been implicated in rhythmogenesis for respiration and locomotion. Sequence variants in or near Apt1a2 strongly modulate expression of the cognate mRNA in multiple brain regions. This gene region has recently been sequenced exhaustively and we have cataloged over 300 non-coding and synonymous mutations segregating among BXD strains, one or more of which is likely to contribute to differences in central pattern generator tempo

Fast reproducible identification and large-scale databasing of individual functional cognitive networks

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although cognitive processes such as reading and calculation are associated with reproducible cerebral networks, inter-individual variability is considerable. Understanding the origins of this variability will require the elaboration of large multimodal databases compiling behavioral, anatomical, genetic and functional neuroimaging data over hundreds of subjects. With this goal in mind, we designed a simple and fast acquisition procedure based on a 5-minute functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sequence that can be run as easily and as systematically as an anatomical scan, and is therefore used in every subject undergoing fMRI in our laboratory. This protocol captures the cerebral bases of auditory and visual perception, motor actions, reading, language comprehension and mental calculation at an individual level.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>81 subjects were successfully scanned. Before describing inter-individual variability, we demonstrated in the present study the reliability of individual functional data obtained with this short protocol. Considering the anatomical variability, we then needed to correctly describe individual functional networks in a voxel-free space. We applied then non-voxel based methods that automatically extract main features of individual patterns of activation: group analyses performed on these individual data not only converge to those reported with a more conventional voxel-based random effect analysis, but also keep information concerning variance in location and degrees of activation across subjects.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This collection of individual fMRI data will help to describe the cerebral inter-subject variability of the correlates of some language, calculation and sensorimotor tasks. In association with demographic, anatomical, behavioral and genetic data, this protocol will serve as the cornerstone to establish a hybrid database of hundreds of subjects suitable to study the range and causes of variation in the cerebral bases of numerous mental processes.</p

A general process model for personal development.

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