Breastfeeding is the most natural way of feeding infants. Together with nutrients, drugs can also pass into milk from the mother's bloodstream, which presents a risk for the breast-fed child. In our Master's thesis we conducted a systematic rewiev of the literature on the safety of the use of anagesics, antibiotics and antidepressants during lactation. The aim of our work was to gather information on the transfer of selected drug classes into breast the milk and their impact on the infant.
By creating appropriate search profiles for individual groups of drugs and using additional filters (arcticles published in English lagungage since the year 2000, studies conducted on humans, cinical trials, meta-analyses, randomized control trials, reviews and systematic reviews), we identified relevant articles in the PubMed database. The results are presented according to the individual pharmacological classes of drugs.
Among antibiotics no drug class is absolutely contraindicated for use during breast-feeding. During the use of penicillins and cephalosporins, which are the safest class of antibiotics during breast-feeding, gastrointestinal problems were the most commonly reported in breast-fed child. Among macrolides, the drug of choice is erythromycin. The use of tetracyclines and fluoroqinolones is not recommended due to their impact on bone and teeth development. Due to the potential ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity, it is also recommended to avoid the use of aminoglycosides during lactation.
The first-line antidepressants for the treatment of breast-feeding women are paroxetine and sertraline. The use of venlafaxine and fluoxetine is not recommended due to their metabolites with long half-life. The tricyclic antidepressants of choice are amitriptyline and nortriptyline. It is advisable to start the treatment using the lowest dose of one drug, which can then be slowly titrated to the lowest yet effective dose. Infant monitoring for behaviour changes (lethargy, sedation and weight-loss) is advisable.
Paracetamol and ibuprofen are the drugs of choice for pain relief in breast-feeding mothers. The safety of long-term opioid use during lactation has not been well-established. Special caution is advised with long-term treatment with high dosees and with the use of prolonged release dosage forms. Sedation, respiratory despression and impact on neurobehavioral development were the most commonly described adverse drug reactions in breastfed infants.
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