How Well Known Are the ABCDX’s of Teratogenicity?

To increase awareness of teratogenic risk, the FDA has classified drugs into pregnancy categories (shown in Table 1).

Clinicians prescribing — and reproductive-age women using — class D or X prescription medications should understand the drugs’ teratogenicity and the need for effective contraception. To investigate whether such women actually receive this information, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study among women members of a large California health maintenance organization (HMO).

Among approximately 488,000 women (age range, 15–44), more than 77,000 filled at least one prescription for a class D or X medication in 2001. During the same year, about 9000 clinicians prescribed class D or X medications (most commonly benzodiazep…