In the study, researchers analyzed hair samples from a total
of 517 women who had recently given birth. Among this group of women, 213 had
infants with birth defects potentially linked to recreational substance use,
143 had infants with birth defects not presumably linked to substance use,
and 161 had infants with no birth defects. The study found evidence of drug use
in a substantially higher proportion of mothers whose babies were born with
birth defects of the brain (35%), compared to mothers whose babies had no
such birth defects (13%). The article reports that spina bifida, brain cysts
and under-development of the brain were among the brain anomalies found.
The article notes that birth defects affecting an infant’s
brain can have severe life-long outcomes such as the development of cerebral
palsy and other conditions. The study, however, did not identify any
significant links to brain defects in the affected
infants and the use of any particular drug.
According to the article, obtaining evidence for assessing
the links between birth defects and substance use relies on pregnant women self-reporting
their drug use at the time of conception and the first trimester. The study’s
authors suggest that hair testing for substance abuse can provide an
approximate timeline of drug use over the duration of pregnancy, thus
eliminating self-reporting bias.
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