NCJ Number
164000
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1996) Pages: 113-122
Date Published
1996
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study examined the health and development of a group of British children, aged 3-7, who were born to and reared by mothers who abused opiates when pregnant and who remain on methadone maintenance.
Abstract
The study included 23 children whose mothers were on methadone and 20 control children matched by age and social class. The assessment involved a medical, social, and family history, as well as a physical examination. The study shows that the group of children whose mothers (with one possible exception) took opiates during pregnancy and remain on methadone maintenance were as healthy -- in terms of height, physical examination, and medical history -- as a matched control group. The children's hospital attendance, as an index of health care use, showed no difference between the two groups. The children of mothers on methadone were making similar developmental progress in controlling children, and there was no child in either group with problem behavior; however, the children born to opiate abusers did have significantly smaller head circumferences than controls, although there was only one child from the index group whose head measurement was below the third centile. 2 tables and 19 references