Although METH use by women of child-bearing age places fetuses at risk for exposure to this drug, the short and long-term consequences of gestational exposure to METH are only beginning to be elucidated and are still for the most part largely unknown. A group of researchers in Stockholm, Sweden has followed a cohort of 65 children since 1976 whose mothers used AMP during pregnancy. They have documented a variety of adverse physical, cognitive, emotional, and social effects in these children, including increased rates of ADHD, learning disabilities, aggression, and school failure74-82. However, multiple methodological flaws, including the lack of a control group, confounding drug exposures, and examiners not blinded to exposure status, make interpretation problematic. More recently, our group has identified subtle neurobehavioral findings83 and increased rates of intrauterine growth restriction84 in an ongoing prospective, controlled and blinded study of prenatal METH exposure and child development. Our longitudinal clinical study is now focused on identifiying specific endophenotype profiles (e.g., attention, motivation and memory) of prenatal METH exposure that, if identified, have the potential to enhance our understanding of the underlying pathophysiology and will provide powerful behavioral correlates to structural and functional brain imaging data.
