Neurodevelopmental outcome after prenatal exposure to opiates

Abstract

At 1 year infants prenatally exposed to opiates are at risk for mild psychomotor developmental impairment.

Cognitive function of youths born to mothers with opioid and poly-substance abuse problems during pregnancy

“…The significant effect sizes were in the range of approximately 0.5 to 0.9 standard deviations. The combination of cognitive functions within the normal range but significantly worse than a non-exposed group is in accordance with previous studies of young children with prenatal opioid or poly-drug exposure (Bauman & Levine, 1986;Bunikowski et al, 1998;Hans & Jeremy, 2001;Hunt et al, 2008;Johnson et al, 1984;Logan et al, 2011;van Baar & de Graaff, 1994;Wilson, 1989;Wilson et al, 1979) and youths with such prenatal exposure (Davis & Templer, 1988;Ornoy et al, 2010).…”

“…As found in previous studies (Bernstein et al, 1984;Bunikowski et al, 1998;Davis & Templer, 1988;Hans, 1989;Hans & Jeremy, 2001;Logan et al, 2011;Wahlsten & Sarman, 2013), the drug-exposed group had significantly worse fine motor functioning than the non-exposed group. However, the results were within the normal range, and the differences between the groups were not larger than the differences in general cognitive abilities.…”

“…The few studies of young children indicate the likelihood of problems within fields related to executive control and attention (Hans, 1996;Hickey, Suess, Newlin, Spurgeon, & Porges, 1995;Melinder, Konijnenberg, & Sarfi, 2013;Ornoy, Segal, Bar-Hamburger, & Greenbaum, 2001;Slinning, 2004;Wahlsten & Sarman, 2013) and behavior regulation (de Cubas & Field, 1993;Hans, 1996;Sowder & Burt, 1980). Fine motor abilities, which are often related to executive control (Rigoli, Piek, Kane, & Oosterlaan, 2012), have also been found to be worse among young children born to mothers with opioid and poly-drug use during pregnancy than among other children (Bunikowski et al, 1998;Davis & Templer, 1988;Hans & Jeremy, 2001;Logan et al, 2011). Some studies find that motor abilities are the most affected functional area (Bernstein, Jeremy, Hans, & Marcus, 1984;Hans, 1989;Wahlsten & Sarman, 2013), whereas other studies have not found significant group differences in motor abilities (van Baar, 1990).…”

“…Some studies find that young children who have been exposed to opioids and multiple substances have greater impairments in general cognitive abilities than non-exposed children (Bunikowski et al, 1998;Hunt et al, 2008;Johnson, Diano, & Rosen, 1984;Logan et al, 2013;Moe, 2002a;Moe & Slinning, 2001;Salo et al, 2009;van Baar & de Graaff, 1994;Wahlsten & Sarman, 2013;Wilson, 1989;Wilson, McCreary, Kean, & Baxter, 1979), whereas others do not find such differences either before (de Cubas & Field, 1993;Kaltenbach & Finnegan, 1989;Melinder et al, 2013;Rosen & Johnson, 1985;Strauss, Lessen-Firestone, Chavez, & Stryker, 1979) or after controlling for covariates (Bauman & Levine, 1986;Lifschitz, Wilson, Smith, & Desmond, 1985;Messinger et al, 2004).…”

Neonatal opioid withdrawal and antenatal opioid prescribing

“…[7][8][9] Historically, the opioids most commonly responsible for neonatal opioid withdrawal have been heroin and methadone. 10,11 In the last 20 years, coincident with the increased prescribing of opioids for chronic noncancer pain, 12 several studies have documented an increased incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome. 6,8,13,14 However, no large studies have examined antenatal opioid prescription records, and the degree to which the treatment of pain with opioids contributes to the present-day incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome is unknown.…”