Prenatal drug exposure: effects on neonatal and infant growth and development.

Abstract

There is no question that the number of women using and abusing drugs other than opiates far exceeds the number who are addicted to narcotics. Data on four groups of drug-addicted pregnant women and their newborns are presented and compared to a drug-free control group. Group I women (N = 51) conceived while on heroin and were converted to low-dose methadone maintenance; Group II women were addicted to multiple licit or illicit nonnarcotic drugs (N = 22); Group III women abused a combination of pentazocine and tripelennamine (T's and blues) during pregnancy (N = 13); and Group IV women (N = 9) abused phencyclidine (PCP) throughout pregnancy. Group V women (N = 27) were selected from the clinic population of Prentice Women's Hospital and Maternity Center and had no history or evidence of substance use or abuse. Opiate-exposed newborns in Groups I and III were significantly smaller than control infants for all growth parameters, though by nine months of age they had caught up in weight and length to control infants. Head circumference remained significantly smaller than controls through two years of age. All four groups of drug-exposed infants exhibited abnormal neurobehavior in the newborn period, but mental and psychomotor development as evaluated with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development was comparable to control infants' development through two years of age.