prenatal cud “appears to be associated with escalated odds of major adverse neonatal outcomes,” states the study abstract .
the retrospective study out of the university of california san diego (ucsd), funded by the national institute on drug abuse, considered 4.8 million mothers who delivered live, single births in the state between 2001 and 2012, according to ucsd . of the records reviewed, investigators identified 20,237 women with a cud diagnosis who were discharged following delivery.
published online in addiction , study authors suggest the actual incidence of cud “is likely higher than reported numbers.”
investigators compared the 20,237 women with a control group of 40,474 mother-infant pairs who had similar demographics and maternal health factors, including other substance use disorder diagnoses and tobacco use. previous findings suggest “concurrent tobacco use is common among pregnant women who use cannabis,” notes a statement from nida .
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a review published in 2015 indicated most studies showed two to five per cent of self-reported cannabis use during pregnancy.
another study two years later found about 20 per cent of pregnant women 24 and younger screened positive for cannabis, although self-reporting of use was about half that level.
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published in 2002, a british study of approximately 12,000 women “suggests that the use of cannabis during pregnancy was not associated with increased risk of perinatal mortality or morbidity in this sample. however, frequent and regular use of cannabis throughout pregnancy may be associated with small, but statistically detectable, decrements in birth weight,” it notes.
and earlier this year, research out of children’s hospital colorado demonstrated that thc stays in breast milk for up to six weeks.
“ while we cannot establish that cannabis use caused negative outcomes in this study, these data reinforce the case for caution around using cannabis during pregnancy,” nida director dr. nora volkow says in a statement from the agency.
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