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The severity and location of the deformities depended on how many days into the pregnancy the mother was before beginning treatment; thalidomide taken on the 20th day of pregnancy caused central brain damage, day 21 would damage the eyes, day 22 the ears and face, day 24 the arms, and leg damage would occur if taken up to day 28.
Thalidomide is a known human teratogen and carries an extremely high risk of severe, life-threatening birth defects if administered or taken during pregnancy. [6] It causes skeletal deformities such as amelia (absence of legs and/or arms), absence of bones, and phocomelia (malformation of the limbs).
Phocomelia is a congenital condition that involves malformations of human arms and legs which result in a flipper-like appendage. [1] [2] A prominent cause of phocomelia is the mother being prescribed the use of the drug thalidomide during pregnancy; however, the causes of most cases are to be determined.
Thalidomide was used as treatment for cancers, leprosy and HIV, however, the drug was extensively used for the treatment of nausea in pregnant women in the late 1950s and early 1960s until it became apparent in the 1960s that it resulted in severe birth defects.
McBride published a letter in The Lancet, in December 1961, noting a large number of birth defects in children of patients who were prescribed thalidomide, [9] after a midwife named Sister Pat Sparrow first suspected the drug was causing birth defects in the babies of patients under his care at Crown Street Women's Hospital in Sydney. [10]
Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims is a nonfiction book authored by Jennifer Vanderbes and published by Random House in 2023. It tells the story of how Frances Oldham Kelsey of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found flaws in thalidomide research.
In November 1961, thalidomide was thus taken off the market. [11] [12] Thalidomide caused severe deformities in the children of women who took the drug during pregnancy. Experts estimate that the drug thalidomide led to the death of about 2,000 children and serious birth defects in more than 10,000 children, about 5,000 of them in West Germany.
Thalidomide is a classical example highlighting the alleged role of chirality in drug toxicity. Thalidomide was a racemic therapeutic and prescribed to pregnant women to control nausea and vomiting. The drug was withdrawn from world market when it became evident that the use in pregnancy causes phocomelia (clinical conditions where babies are ...