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Home  >  Articles  >  Statistics on Birth Defects from Prescription Drugs

Statistics on Birth Defects from Prescription Drugs

Each year, pregnant women receive prescriptions from their doctors that may cause unintended side effects. Specifically, many common medications can negatively affect the development of fetuses, leading to birth defects.

Although many individuals are convinced that their doctors would never prescribe dangerous medications to them without offering sufficient warning, studies at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center prove otherwise. In a sample of 500,000 women, approximately half were not told about possible birth defects that could result from their medications.

If your physician prescribed dangerous medication to you, leading to a birth defect in your child, contact the New Jersey medical malpractice attorneys of Levinson Axelrod, P.A., today by calling 800-346-5529 to learn more about your legal rights and options.

Disturbing Findings

The study’s researchers waded through insurance billing information to piece together a rough picture of doctor-patient communication. Although the researchers have noted that their numbers are far from perfect representations, the information in the billing forms does provide an insight into how few patients learn about potential medication side effects. Consider some of the following figures:

  • 1-in-6 women received drugs with known birth defect side effects
  • 48% of women receiving high-risk drugs were not informed about these side effects
  • 47% of women receiving low-risk drugs were not informed about potential side effects
  • 48% of high-risk prescriptions came from family doctors and internists

Because doctors can fail to inform their patients about dangerous medication side effects, patients need to question their doctor about what drugs they are taking and research what side effects these drugs can have.

Contact Us

Additionally, it is important for patients to hold their doctors accountable when they are given dangerous medications. If your child developed a birth defect because you were given a dangerous prescription drug without warning, contact the New Jersey medical malpractice attorneys of Levinson Axelrod, P.A., P.A, at 800-346-5529 today.