drug_policy/cocaine.babies.html

From our drug policy file archives. For educational purposes only, to inform the debate about drug policy. Some of the activities discussed here may be illegal, dangerous, stupid, or more than one of the above. (Please note that web links inside this document may be broken.)

Lair of the infamous tms: Drug Policy, cocaine.babies

From mimsy!haven.umd.edu!umd5!snpf@oberon.umd.edu Wed Nov 20 23:14:05 EST 1991 Article: 20697 of alt.drugs Path: mimsy!haven.umd.edu!umd5!snpf@oberon.umd.edu From: snpf@oberon.umd.edu (Sarah Noelle Pratt Ferguson) Newsgroups: alt.drugs Subject: Cocaine Babies (real info) Keywords: cocaine Message-ID: <10413@umd5.umd.edu> Date: 20 Nov 91 21:36:54 GMT Sender: news@umd5.umd.edu Lines: 56 SMOKING OUT COCAINE'S IN UTERO IMPACT: Despite many reports of cocaine's ill effects on the developing fetus, scientists lack definitive evidence specifically linking cocaine to adverse reproductive effects (SN:9/7/91,p.152). Using a powerful statistical technique, a Canadian research team has found that cocaine by itself causes very few problems during pregnancy. Gideon Koren of the University of Toronto and his colleagues identified 20 previously published cocaine studies that involved pregnant women and yielded mixed results. Those studies often relied on small samples of cacaine users -- a problem that limited each study's statistical power. To home in on cocaine's reproductive risks, his team turned to a method called meta-analysis, which statisticians use to assess data by pooling a number of similar studies. Koren and his colleagues identified women in the 20 studies who used cocaine during pregnancy but did not use other illicit drugs or alcohol, and compared them with those who reported no drug or alcohol use during pregnancy. They found no statistical link between prenatal cocaine use and premature delivery, low birthweight or congenital heart defects in babies--problems often thought to result from cocaine. The meta-analysis suggests that confounding factors--such as other drugs, alcohol, and smoking--may account for the fetal growth retardation or prematurity commonly ascribed to cocaine, the researchers assert in the October TERATOLOGY. Koren says women who use cocaine tend to smoke more cigarettes than women who use other illicit drugs and are more likely to drink alcohol and take additional drugs. The meta-analysis did reveal a chance that a pregnant woman's cocaine use by itself might cause malformations of the genito-urinary tract in a small number of infants. Koren says this effect may trace to cocaine-induced constriction of the placental blood vessels. ----------------------------------------------- Contrast with the legal drug's proven effects: ----------------------------------------------- FEDERAL SURVEY COUNTS FEMALE SMOKERS Nearly one out of three women of childbearing age smokes cigarettes, according to a survey of women living in 39 states and the District of Columbia. The nation's smoking habits worry public health officials, who note that women who continue to smoke during pregnancy run an elevated risk of delivering a premature or low-birthweight baby. [nothing on effects on baby of men smoking] The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) details the results of the 1989 survey in the Oct. 25 MORBIDITY and MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT. To conduct the study, state health workers telephoned a sampling of women aged 18 to 44 and asked them questions about their smoking history. Among the states surveyed, Utah had the lowest prevalence of reproductive-age female smokers, while Kentucky and Rhode Island had the highest. In general, smoking appeared most common amoung women living in midwestern states. Women of childbearing age who pair oral contraceptives with a smoking habit increase their risk of heart attacks.... Both articles are directly copied from _The Weekly Newsmagazine of Science: SCIENCE NEWS_ November 9, 1991; Vol. 140, No. 19, p.302.

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drug_policy/cocaine.babies.html