3 ms·

From the Wikipedia article: >At the time of the drug's development, scientists did not believe any drug taken by a pregnant woman could pass across the placent

From the Wikipedia article: >At the time of the drug's development, scientists did not believe any drug taken by a pregnant woman could pass across the placental barrier and harm the developing fetus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide Wtf?

rscho 6y ago
Medicine used to be, and in substantial part still is, a disordered heap of hypotheses relying on practical experience and relayed by the stars of the field. There are plenty of strange examples throughout history. For example, we used to believe until not so long ago that infants couldn't feel pain (with all the 'interesting' consequences on practice you can imagine).
- myself248 6y ago
  I'm less than convinced that anyone sincerely believed that. It seems more plausible that it's a lie they told themselves to paper over other cultural, profit, or institutional pressure.
  - rscho 6y ago
    Of course people believed strange things! As I said, the field is far from being hard science even today (am MD myself). What do you think "expert opinion" actually means? Well, just that... and the literature is full of such opinions driving many important guidelines for practice in the real world. As recently as 1999, it was commonly stated that babies could not feel pain until they were a year old.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_babies#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DAs_recently_as_1999%2C_it%2Ccertain_age_can_experience_pain.?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_babies#%3A%7E%3Atext%3...
burlesona 6y ago
I mean, people think all kinds of things that seem plausible at the time and look crazy in hindsight to future generations. This is what progress looks like.
jcranmer 6y ago
It's not an entirely crazy concept. There are several barriers in the body that isolate systems from one another that can be challenging to cross, and the blood-brain barrier is probably the most difficult of all of them. The existence of the blood-brain barrier has been known since the early 20th century (despite the difficulty of actually finding it!), and it wouldn't be entirely crazy to a priori believe that the placental barrier would be similarly strong. As it turns out though, the placental barrier is probably the weakest such barrier.
- blahedo 6y ago
  > the placental barrier is probably the weakest such barrier At least, in humans (and other primates and rodents, but not most mammals). Human embryos/fetuses receive more nourishment and achieve more growth during prenatal development in part because the placenta invades the uterine wall much more—for lack of a better word—parasitically than in other mammalian species. That's great for a lot of developmental stuff for the fetus, but it does make transfer of (say) drugs considerably easier. (It also is the source of a lot of the common maternal complications in human pregnancy and is the reason one should at least be in contact with medical doctors while pregnant, even if a low-intervention or home birth plan is intended....)

rscho 6y ago

Medicine used to be, and in substantial part still is, a disordered heap of hypotheses relying on practical experience and relayed by the stars of the field. There are plenty of strange examples throughout history. For example, we used to believe until not so long ago that infants couldn't feel pain (with all the 'interesting' consequences on practice you can imagine).

myself248 6y ago
I'm less than convinced that anyone sincerely believed that. It seems more plausible that it's a lie they told themselves to paper over other cultural, profit, or institutional pressure.
- rscho 6y ago
  Of course people believed strange things! As I said, the field is far from being hard science even today (am MD myself). What do you think "expert opinion" actually means? Well, just that... and the literature is full of such opinions driving many important guidelines for practice in the real world. As recently as 1999, it was commonly stated that babies could not feel pain until they were a year old.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_babies#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DAs_recently_as_1999%2C_it%2Ccertain_age_can_experience_pain.?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_babies#%3A%7E%3Atext%3...

burlesona 6y ago

I mean, people think all kinds of things that seem plausible at the time and look crazy in hindsight to future generations. This is what progress looks like.

jcranmer 6y ago

It's not an entirely crazy concept. There are several barriers in the body that isolate systems from one another that can be challenging to cross, and the blood-brain barrier is probably the most difficult of all of them. The existence of the blood-brain barrier has been known since the early 20th century (despite the difficulty of actually finding it!), and it wouldn't be entirely crazy to a priori believe that the placental barrier would be similarly strong. As it turns out though, the placental barrier is probably the weakest such barrier.

blahedo 6y ago
> the placental barrier is probably the weakest such barrier At least, in humans (and other primates and rodents, but not most mammals). Human embryos/fetuses receive more nourishment and achieve more growth during prenatal development in part because the placenta invades the uterine wall much more—for lack of a better word—parasitically than in other mammalian species. That's great for a lot of developmental stuff for the fetus, but it does make transfer of (say) drugs considerably easier. (It also is the source of a lot of the common maternal complications in human pregnancy and is the reason one should at least be in contact with medical doctors while pregnant, even if a low-intervention or home birth plan is intended....)