抗生物質は新生児の発育を遅らせるかもしれません。Use of antibiotics to neonatal children will cause delay in their growth.
Share for Smileの楓子です。
English follows Japanese.
新生児に抗生物質を与えると短期的な身体への影響がみられることは有名かもしれませんが、今まで長期的な影響の観察を行った研究はありませんでした。
日本では、欧米諸国に比べ簡単に薬を処方することが多く、あまり必要でない場合にも強めの薬を処方することがよくあります。しかし、抗生物質が与える長期的な影響を考えると日本の薬の処方クライテリアを見直し、再考する必要があると考えています。
また、抗生物質の長期的な影響が発表された今でも、すごく必要というわけではない薬が子供の成長を遅らせることに繋がるということはなかなか病院では教えてもらえないことだと思います。もちろんすべてのお医者さんがこの論文の結果を知っているとは思いませんが、この結果を知っていても言わないお医者さんもいるという問題もあると思っています。私は、今後医療の透明性を重視できるような医療システムの改善が必要だと考えています。
The effect of antibiotics on physiology of neonatal kids are famous, but there were not many studies done to show the effects of antibiotics in the long-term.
Paper published in Nature Communications looked at the effects on antibiotics when used within few weeks of birth with 12422 babies who were born between 2008 and 2010. This paper revealed that the growth of children (weight and height) were impaired until 6yrs old. However, this delayed growths were only observed in boys and not girls.
In Japan, medicines are more easily prescribed compared to European countries, and the doctors in Japan tend to prescribe medicines that are sometimes not necessary just to be sure that children get well. However, considering that there are drugs that delays children's growth, I think Japanese medical systems need to rethink on their criteria of prescribing medicines. Also, not many doctors around the world will not tell patients about the long-term effects found in this paper when prescribing the antibiotics. I understand all of them may not be aware of the existence of the paper, but sometimes it is a problem of information transparency. This is a problem all around the world, and I truly believe that needs to be fixed so that patients have can be treated without worrying about side effects.
