Longitudinal dataset helps characterize middle childhood after prenatal drug exposure

An article published this month in the Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing, makes use of data from the Maternal Lifestyle Study (MLS) in Four Sites in the United States, 1993-2011 (ICPSR 34312) to extend our understanding of children with a history of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which occurs when newborns experience withdrawal following in utero exposure to opioids, methamphetamines, or even psychotropic medications. Authors Miller and Anderson noted theirs was one of “the first studies to examine outcomes during middle childhood among children with a history of NAS.” Their analysis aimed “to describe the prenatal exposures, household environment, and neurodevelopmental health” of these children, since few studies have examined health outcomes related to NAS beyond infancy to age 5. With the MLS data, distributed by the National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP), the authors were able to create an important “preliminary set of demographic, prenatal, and postnatal characteristics along with family medical and social follow-up,” providing “critical baseline information on this understudied population.” The MLS, a large NIH-funded longitudinal observational study of the long-term effects of in-utero exposure to cocaine on child development, collected data on mother-infant dyads in Florida, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. It included 4 follow-up phases, over 16 years. Miller and Anderson looked specifically at a sample of children followed in the MLS at age 10, who had a history of NAS. They found that the majority of those children had prenatal exposure to more than one substance, with continued exposure to substance use by people living in their home. They also found that over 20% experienced learning disorders, language delays, and abnormal cognitive development, which could indicate that their brains suffered white matter injury–pointing to an area that merits further research. See the Data-related Publications tab on the MLS study home page for more publications using these data.