Grant: Catalyst Grant: Post Market Drug Safety and Effectiveness

Over the past decade, the population's use of prescription drugs has increased considerably. By some estimates, over three-quarters of adults fill at least one prescription for a medicine each year. Rates of prescription drug use are higher among women than men, particularly during child bearing ages. This is particularly important because the use of prescription drugs among women who are pregnant or lactating is an area of considerable uncertainty. First, because pregnant women are generally excluded from clinical trials, the use of prescription drugs during pregnancy represents clinical uncertainty with regard to benefits and risks to the mother and foetus. Second, relatively little is known about the use of prescription drugs by pregnant Canadians because few drug information systems in Canada capture population-based data on medicine use among populations of child bearing ages. This catalyst grant will address the latter information gap through a population-based data linkage and analysis, enabling a program of research on exposures to and outcomes of prescription drug use during pregnancy. It will address the former information gap by developing advanced protocols for studying the impacts of antidepressant use when women are pregnant and lactating. The project will link the British Columbia Perinatal Database Registry, the BC PharmaNet database, and the Population Data BC holdings to produce one of the world's most comprehensive databases on pregnancy, health status, prescription drug use, and health outcomes.