MPH’s Fill: Expecting mothers’ opioid use may stunt kids’ learning
New study says children whose mothers used opioids while pregnant commonly face learning disabilities and other special education needs.
The study involved about 7,200 children aged 3 to 8 enrolled in Tennessee’s Medicaid program. Nearly 2,000 of them were born with what’s called newborn abstinence syndrome. It’s a collection of symptoms caused by withdrawal from their pregnant mother’s use of opioid drugs like prescription painkillers, heroin or fentanyl. The drugs can pass through the placenta into the developing nervous system.Results were released Thursday by the journal Pediatrics.
Study co-author Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University said it makes sense that opioid use in pregnancy could affect children’s later development. Some studies have found brain differences in affected children including in a region involved in certain types of learning.
But Dr. Mary-Margaret Fill, the lead author and a researcher with Tennessee’s health department, said these children “are definitely not doomed. There are great programs and services that exist to help these children and their families. We just have to make sure they get plugged in.