Risks of maternal codeine intake in breast-fed infants: A Joint Statement of Retraction from the Canadian Pharmacists Journal and Canadian Family Physician

Abstract

This paper is jointly published in Canadian Family Physician and the Canadian Pharmacists Journal. In late 2006 and early 2007, the Canadian Pharmacists Journal and Canadian Family Physician published columns from the same authors that described a case of infant mortality caused by opioid overdose from breast feeding attributed to the mother’s status as a rapid metabolizer of codeine to the active morphine metabolite. The original version of this case report was published in 2006 in the Lancet. This case report has been cited over 600 times since its publication and its findings have had a significant effect on the way that postpartum analgesic medication is prescribed. In May 2020, Drs. Jonathan Zipursky and David Juurlink from the University of Toronto published a paper in the journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics calling into question that newborns can develop opioid toxicity from breastfeeding. In the paper they re-examined aspects of this case report and strongly argued why such an occurrence is highly implausible. They concluded that: