14 DAY TRIAL // Listening to steroid-packed boys (such as Stallone and others like him) talking, you would not say they have a very active brain. But a new research showed that the issue is more serious than it might seem: repeated administrations of a steroid employed to increase the survival of unborn premature babies may also rise the likelihood of cerebral palsy, as found by a new research led by Dr. Ronald Wapner, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Columbia University Medical Center and attending obstetrician and gynecologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.
The corticosteroid named betamethasone is administered to women at risk of premature delivery to hasten the growth of their baby's lungs. One administration of steroids seems to decrease neonatal mortality and improve lung function with minimal risk for the child. Until 2000, obstetrician-gynecologists usually repeated the steroid administration weekly, up to 10 to 11 times, in women who got pregnant after the first course, but then a research warned about the lack of research concerning the safety of this procedure, and pointed that multiple courses should be strictly reserved to those taking part in clinical trials.
In this long-term trial - made on 556 women at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia and 12 other sites around the country who got pregnant a week after the initial administration of corticosteroids - the subjects received weekly either the drug or a placebo until the time of giving birth.
By the age of two to three, the two groups of children were physically and neurologically similar, except that 6 out of 248 children who received the corticosteroids were diagnosed with cerebral palsy, while just 1 child out of 238 in the placebo group received this diagnosis. The mothers of all 6 children with cerebral palsy in the corticosteroid group had been administered the steroid at least four times.
The difference in number of diseased children may be statistically not significant, Wapner warns that, as weekly courses had no long-term benefit and can be potentially harmful, the substance should not be administered.