Birth Defects From Drug Use

[Esther]

I'm looking for any info on the long term effects of children whose parents, specifically mothers for obvious reasons, smoked pot prior to their conception and/or during pregnancy. I need this info because there's something wrong with my niece and so far what I've found in regards to prepregnant and prenatal pot use fits her.

I would appreciate links or search suggestions but I'm not interested in hearing anything else at this point.[<---- What I mean by this is that I don't want to hear any "pot should be legal" type hooey. This is also not about placing blame. Just information at this point, please, unless you are personally affected by disorders of this nature - if there are actually "disorders of this nature". In that case, I'd appreciate hearing any symptoms involved, when they showed up and how you are dealing with the situation, i.e. occupational therapy, medication or "other".]

[Jimmy Higgins]

I'm looking for any info on the long term effects of children whose parents, specifically mothers for obvious reasons, smoked pot prior to their conception and/or during pregnancy. I need this info because there's something wrong with my niece and so far what I've found in regards to prepregnant and prenatal pot use fits her.What's wrong? Does she always crave Doritos or something?

Smaller heads (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15286261)

Prenatally exposed offspring had significantly more commission errors than nonexposed participants, but all participants were able to perform the task with more than 85% accuracy. These findings were observed when controlling for present marijuana use and prenatal exposure to nicotine, alcohol and caffeine, and suggest that prenatal marijuana exposure is related to changes in neural activity during response inhibition that last into young adulthood
Effects of prenatal marijuana on response inhibition: an fMRI study of young adults. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15203175)

Exposure to one or more marijuana joints per day during the first trimester predicted deficits in Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised (WRAT-R) reading and spelling scores and a lower rating on the teachers' evaluations of the children's performance. This relation was mediated by the effects of first-trimester marijuana exposure on the children's depression and anxiety symptoms. Second-trimester marijuana use was significantly associated with reading comprehension and underachievement. Exposure to alcohol during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy predicted poorer teachers' ratings of overall school performance. Second-trimester binge drinking predicted lower reading scores. There was no interaction between prenatal marijuana and alcohol exposure.
Prenatal marijuana and alcohol exposure and academic achievement at age 10. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15203174)

etc... etc...

[anthrogirl]

I have looked into this quite a bit (partly because I have a dear friend who is going through a very difficult pregnancy, and her doctor has given her a medical marijuana card--preferring her to smoke the herb over taking strong narcotics)--and the evidence that i've found (unfortunately i can't link them here, because i have special access to online journals, and to link them would be illegal) has been similiar to Jimmy's--rather inconclusive.

my biggest concern about prenatal pot use is the tar that is inhaled through smoking. Since most folks don't use filters in their joints, bongs, and pipes--the carcinogens associated with smoke are straight-piped directly into the lungs.

Alcohol, of course, is much more problematic than pot (in a prenatal environment)--but that doesn't mean that pot is particularly advantageous to the fetus.

Perhaps if you described the symptoms exhibited by your neice, the people of this forum could be more helpful.

ag

[Esther]

What's wrong? Does she always crave Doritos or something?

:lol No, but I sure wish that's all it was. It could be completely unrelated to drugs but it seemed the logical place to start at the time. Thanks for all the links, Jimmy. One of them brought something else to mind which I hadn't considered.