RT Book, Section
A1 Dunn, Holly
A1 Costantine, Maged M.
A2 Pacheco, Luis D.
A2 Saade, George R.
A2 Hankins, Gary D.V.
SR Print(0)
ID 1115521441
T1 Physiologic and Pharmacologic Changes in Pregnancy
T2 Maternal Medicine
YR 2015
FD 2015
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071824163
LK obgyn.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1115521441
RD 2024/04/18
AB Pregnant  women  commonly  use  prescribed  and  over-the-counter  medications  with  the  average  US  and  Canadian  pregnant  woman  using  more  than  two  drugs  during  the  course  of  their  pregnancy.  Almost  one  third  of  them  used  four  or  more  drugs.1  One  reason  for  this  is  that  some  women  enter  into  pregnancy  with  preexisting  medical  conditions  that  require  pharmacotherapy;  and  for  many  others,  pregnancy  itself  can  lead  to  medical  conditions  such  as  nausea,  vomiting,  and  gestational  diabetes  that  require  treatment.  Moreover,  human  pregnancy  is  characterized  by  profound  anatomic  and  physiologic  changes  that  affect  virtually  all  systems  and  organs  and  induce  profound  alterations  to  the  pharmacokinetic  and  pharmacodynamics  properties  of  many  medications.  Many  of  these  changes  begin  since  early  gestation.  Whereas,  some  of  these  changes  are  secondary  to  hormonal  changes  in  pregnancy,  others  are  essential  to  support  the  growing  fetus  and  the  pregnant  mother.  Understanding  pregnancy  physiology  is  essential  to  the  clinician  because  of  the  potential  implications  on  pharmacotherapy  during  pregnancy.  The  goal  of  this  chapter  is  to  summarize  some  of  the  systems,  physiologic  changes  during  pregnancy  that  may  affect  medication  pharmacokinetics.