Effect of prenatal marijuana exposure on the cognitive development of offspring at age three

Day, Nancy L.; Richardson, Gale A.; Goldschmidt, Lidush; Robles, Nadine; Taylor, Paul; Stoffer, David S.; Cornelius, Marie D.; Geva, Daniel

doi:10.1016/0892-0362(94)90114-7

Cited by 220 publications

(131 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…These four year old children in the OPPS, born to women who had used marijuana on a regular basis during pregnancy (more than 5 joints a week), scored significantly lower than the remainder of the sample on a number of verbal and memory outcome measures (Fried and Watkinson 1990) derived primarily from the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (McCarthy 1972). These findings were similar to results from the MHPCD cohort when the children were 3 years of age (Day et al 1994b) in that, among the offspring of women who had used marijuana on a daily basis, an impairment on the short-term memory, verbal and abstract/visual reasoning subscales of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test (Thorndike et al 1986) was noted. In a study investigating the interaction between prenatal cocaine use and a number of drugs including marijuana in 3 year old offspring, maternal marijuana use of an unspecified amount was related to poorer performance on the abstract/visual reasoning subscale of the Stanford-Binet test (Griffith et al 1994).…”

Section: Neurobehavioral/cognitive Outcomes In Late Infancy and Prescsupporting

confidence: 77%

The Consequences of Marijuana Use During Pregnancy: A Review of the Human Literature

Fried

2002

Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics

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SUMMARY.In spite of marijuana being the most widely used illegal drug among women of reproductive age there is a relative paucity of literature dealing with this topic. Of the data available, particularly in offspring beyond three years of age, most is generated by two ongoing cohort studies with very different populations. Both have reported similar findings. Up to approximately 3 years of age there appears to be very little impact upon the offspring. Beyond that age, in utero cannabis exposure does not impact upon standardized derived IQ scores but is negatively associated with attentional behavior and visual analysis/hypothesis testing. These findings are hypothesized as prenatal marijuana exposure having a negative influence on aspects of executive function-a "top-down," multifaceted cognitive construct involved in organizing and integrating specific cognitive and output processes over a interval of time. The results and their interpretation are examined in terms of behavioral teratogenic effects (or lack of effects) during the various developmental stages of the offspring, the non-unitary

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Section: Neurobehavioral/cognitive Outcomes In Late Infancy and Prescsupporting

confidence: 77%

The Consequences of Marijuana Use During Pregnancy: A Review of the Human Literature

Fried

2002

Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics

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“…Whatever the mechanism of action of prenatal exposure to WIN, our results suggest that alterations of hippocampal glutamategic function may underlie, at least in part, the subtle impairment of cognitive processes induced by gestational marijuana exposure (1,4,39).…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…ven though marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug among women at reproductive age, reports dealing with the effects of prenatal exposure to this substance of abuse on the length of gestation, fetal growth, and offspring behavior are still controversial (1)(2)(3)(4). Confounding factors, such as possible impurities in the drug and concomitant tobacco smoking, may be responsible for inconsistencies in the results reported in studies to date (4,5).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal exposure to a cannabinoid agonist produces memory deficits linked to dysfunction in hippocampal long-term potentiation and glutamate release

Mereu

Fà

Ferraro

et al. 2003

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

187

153

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To investigate the possible long-term consequences of gestational exposure to cannabinoids on cognitive functions, pregnant rats were administered with the CB1 receptor agonist WIN 55,212-2 (WIN), at a dose (0.5 mg͞kg) that causes neither malformations nor overt signs of toxicity. Prenatal WIN exposure induced a disruption of memory retention in 40-and 80-day-old offspring subjected to a passive avoidance task. A hyperactive behavior at the ages of 12 and 40 days was also found. The memory impairment caused by the gestational exposure to WIN was correlated with alterations of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and glutamate release. LTP induced in CA3-CA1 synapses decayed faster in brain slices of rats born from WIN-treated dams, whereas posttetanic and shortterm potentiation were similar to the control group. In line with LTP shortening, in vivo microdialysis showed a significant decrease in basal and K ؉ -evoked extracellular glutamate levels in the hippocampus of juvenile and adult rats born from WIN-treated dams. A similar reduction in glutamate outflow was also observed in primary cell cultures of hippocampus obtained from pups born from mothers exposed to WIN. The decrease in hippocampal glutamate outflow appears to be the cause of LTP disruption, which in turn might underlie, at least in part, the long-lasting impairment of cognitive functions caused by the gestational exposure to this cannabinoid agonist. These findings could provide an explanation of cognitive alterations observed in children born from women who use marijuana during pregnancy. E ven though marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug among women at reproductive age, reports dealing with the effects of prenatal exposure to this substance of abuse on the length of gestation, fetal growth, and offspring behavior are still controversial (1-4). Confounding factors, such as possible impurities in the drug and concomitant tobacco smoking, may be responsible for inconsistencies in the results reported in studies to date (4, 5). It is likely that many of these conflicting results are due to methodological problems such as the measurement of neonatal outcomes and the context in which the research is conducted. More complex and less understood is the scenario concerning the possible long-term consequences of in utero exposure to cannabis derivatives on cognitive functions. In fact, data on this issue are sparse, and the identification of alterations in brain development and adult expression of cognitive and behavioral functions is far from definitive. These inconclusive results may depend on ethical, practical, and interpretative difficulties surrounding research with human subjects (4). In this regard, animal models provide a useful tool for examining the possible developmental and long-term effects of prenatal exposure to cannabinoids (CBs).Studies performed in adult rats have demonstrated the involvement of a specific CB receptor (CB1) highly expressed in many brain regions (6) in the reinforcing effects of CBs (7) and also in the disru...

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“…Some evidence has shown that prenatal exposure leads to decreased IQ scores, cognitive function, and attention [11][12][13][14]. Day and colleagues found negative effects on prenatal marijuana exposure (mostly in first and second trimesters) with negative performance demonstrated in 3-year-old children on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scores [11]. Goldschmidt and colleagues found increased hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention symptoms as measured by the Swanson, Noland, and Pelham (SNAP) checklist at age 10 in children with prenatal marijuana exposures [12].…”

Section: Pregnancy and Breastfeedingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pediatric Concerns Due to Expanded Cannabis Use: Unintended Consequences of Legalization

Wang

2016

J. Med. Toxicol.

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An "unintended consequence" of marijuana legalization is the impact on the pediatric population. From prenatal exposure to unintentional childhood exposures, through concerns of adolescence abuse and marijuana use for medicinal indications in children, marijuana exposure can affect pediatric patients at every stage in childhood. Regardless of the stage or reason of exposure, concerns exist about short-term and long-term consequences in a child's physical and mental health. The use of cannabidiol (CBD) may have some benefit for the treatment of epilepsy, but emphasis needs to be on rigorous clinical trials to evaluate efficacy and safety. As more states allow both medical and recreational marijuana, availability and prevalence of use will likely increase and more surveillance and research is needed to evaluate the consequences on the pediatric population.

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Effect of prenatal marijuana exposure on the cognitive development of offspring at age three

Cited by 220 publications

References 21 publications

The Consequences of Marijuana Use During Pregnancy: A Review of the Human Literature

The Consequences of Marijuana Use During Pregnancy: A Review of the Human Literature

Prenatal exposure to a cannabinoid agonist produces memory deficits linked to dysfunction in hippocampal long-term potentiation and glutamate release

Pediatric Concerns Due to Expanded Cannabis Use: Unintended Consequences of Legalization

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