Pregnancy :: Cocaine use during pregnancy cause disabling cognitive impairments in kids

Using cocaine during pregnancy can cause disabling cognitive impairments in kids. These impairments include attention deficits, learning disabilities and emotional problems. The study was conducted by researchers at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development.

Researchers Gregg Stanwood, PhD, and Pat Levitt, PhD, in a study on rabbits, found that prenatal cocaine exposure causes a long lasting displacement of dopamine receptors in certain brain cells, which alters their ability to function normally.

Dr. Stanwood reported that even though children of women who have used low recreational doses of cocaine seem to be ?normal? at birth, they tend to develop deficits in their cognitive and emotional development as they grow older. “But in women who have abused relatively low recreational doses of cocaine, it is actually very hard to distinguish those children at birth from children born to anyone else. However, as those children age, they do develop deficits in their cognitive and emotional development,” he said.

These children often exhibit attention and arousal problems, similar to children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the standard treatments for ADHD — Ritalin and other stimulants — are not always effective in these children.


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