Dextromethorphan Is Safe in Pregnancy

Dextromethorphan (DM), a synthetic, non-narcotic analog of codeine, is widely available as the active ingredient in a variety of cough and cold remedies. Although recently published data from chick embryo studies suggest a possible teratogenic risk to humans when DM is used in the first trimester of pregnancy, there had been no controlled studies of the incidence or risk of these effects in humans.

To assess this risk, Canadian investigators studied 184 women who used DM for upper respiratory tract infection (URI) during the first trimester of their pregnancies and compared them to a cohort of pregnant women matched for age, smoking status, alcohol use, and URI incidence who did not use DM. The amount of cough and cold products taken, based …