Use of high blood pressure drugs among pregnant women in the country have gone up dramatically, a new study reveals.
The findings published in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension found about five percent of pregnant women seeking medical help to treat high blood pressure and being prescribed even the drugs that can prove to be unsafe to both the baby and the mother.
Lead author Brian T. Bateman and colleagues found an increase in the recent use of blood pressure drugs during pregnancy.
"While we know high blood pressure, or hypertension, occurs in about 6 percent to 8 percent of all pregnancies, we know little about how women and their doctors treat the condition," said Bateman, lead author and Assistant Professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass., in a news release.
For the study, the researchers looked at data that included one million Medicaid patients. Of the total pregnant women, nearly 50,000 reported being prescribed blood pressure drugs during pregnancy.
The analysis found the antihypertensive drug use increasing from 3.5 percent in 2000 to 4.9 percent in 2006. The occurrence was found more common among older women, particularly the Caucasian or African-American women than Hispanic or Asian.
The use of the drugs was found high during the end of the pregnancy -3.2 percent during the third trimester compared to 1.7 in the second trimester.
ACE inhibitors and angiotensin recptor blockers, two drugs proved to be unsafe during pregnancy, were also found among the prescribed drugs' list.
"We know from reports that a number of harmful effects can occur from using ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, especially during the second and third trimester," Bateman said.
"These drugs can cause poor growth, kidney problems and even death of the newborn. If women are taking one of these blood pressure medications and they become pregnant or plan to do so, they and their doctors should discuss treatment choices during pregnancy."
