A prospective cohort study by French scientists has shown that the use of tocolytics—medications that inhibit uterine contractions and are used to prevent preterm labor—is not associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes in extremely preterm infants who survived to age 5.5 years. As reported in JAMA Network Open, the study included 1,055 mothers and 1,320 infants born between 24 and 31 weeks of gestation.
In a study led by Thibault Plouchart of the University of Rouen, 776 mothers received tocolytics. Of these, 136 mothers received calcium channel blockers, and 295 mothers received atosiban (an oxytocin and vasopressin inhibitor). A Poisson regression analysis showed that at 5.5 years of age, neurodevelopmental outcomes were not significantly different between preterm infants exposed to tocolytics and those in the control group. Drug class did not influence the analysis results.
