Citation

Wouldes TA, Lester BM. Semin. Fetal Neonatal. Med. 2019; 24(2): 155-160.

Affiliation

Center for the Study of Children at Risk, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, 50 Holden Street, Providence, Rhode Island, 02908, USA. Electronic address: Barry_Lester@brown.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.siny.2019.01.011

PMID

30803902

Abstract

Globally, cocaine use increased by 7%-18.2 million people in 2016 or 0.4% of the world population aged 15-64. In 2016, over 34 million (0.7%) people aged 15-64 used amphetamines and a further 0.4% used MDMA (Ecstasy). Women of child bearing age worldwide are increasingly using and becoming dependent on stimulants; and are, in turn, more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, sexual violence, unplanned pregnancies and mental health problems. Stimulant use during pregnancy increases obstetric complications for the mother, increases the rate of preterm birth and decreases birth weight, length and head circumference for the exposed infant. No consistent signs of neonatal abstinence syndrome requiring pharmacological treatment have been identified for cocaine or methamphetamine, however, infants exposed to one or both drugs exhibit disorganized neurobehaviour at birth. Increased efforts worldwide are needed to determine the extent of maternal stimulant use and to prevent or identify and treat substance use early during pregnancy.

© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Antenatal care; Cocaine; Gender differences; Global; Maternal and child outcomes; Methamphetamine