1. Hypericum perforatum use during pregnancy and pregnancy outcome.
- Author
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Kolding L, Pedersen LH, Henriksen TB, Olsen J, and Grzeskowiak LE
- Subjects
- Abnormalities, Drug-Induced epidemiology, Abnormalities, Drug-Induced etiology, Adult, Antidepressive Agents isolation & purification, Databases, Factual, Denmark epidemiology, Female, Humans, Hypericum chemistry, Phytotherapy, Plant Extracts isolation & purification, Plants, Medicinal, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Complications diagnosis, Pregnancy Complications epidemiology, Premature Birth chemically induced, Premature Birth epidemiology, Prevalence, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Surveys and Questionnaires, Antidepressive Agents adverse effects, Hypericum adverse effects, Plant Extracts adverse effects, Pregnancy Complications chemically induced
- Abstract
Hypericum perforatum (HP; also known as St. John's Wort) is one of the most commonly used herbal therapies in the management of depressive illness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential side effects of HP during pregnancy on pregnancy outcome. Using data from the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC), we investigated outcomes among 38 HP exposed pregnancies compared to a group of 90,128 women. Associations between HP use and gestational age, preterm birth, birth weight, malformations and Apgar scores were investigated. Preterm birth did not differ across the groups. While the prevalence of malformations in the HP exposed group was slightly higher (8.1%) than observed in the control groups (3.3%; p=0.13), this was based on only three cases and was not of any specific pattern., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2015
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