Unites States: According to a recent study, pregnant women who take prescription opioids do not significantly raise their child’s chance of developing developmental problems like ADHD.
Limited risk found in specific circumstances
“A slightly increased risk of neuropsychiatric disorders was found, but this should not be considered clinically meaningful” because it was limited to mothers taking more than one opioid, prescribed high doses and using the drugs over longer periods of time, concluded the research team led by Dong Keon Yon, a professor of paediatrics with Kyung Hee University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea.
Conflicting previous research
This is strange that almost 7 percent of women in United States are taking opioids during pregnancy, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because they are prescribed.
Due mostly to limited sample sizes and brief follow-up periods, previous research on the relationship between opiate use during pregnancy and different health outcomes in children have produced conflicting results every time.
Also to produce a high powered examination of the potential problem and researchers also analysed the health data for more than 3.1 million infants who are born in South Korea between the year 2010 and 2017 to nearly 2.3 million mothers.
Mothers were categorized based on the amount, length, and frequency of opioid prescriptions they had throughout their pregnancies, and the children were monitored for an average of six years following delivery.
Comprehensive analysis and findings
Researchers discovered that 7 percent of babies were exposed to opioids when their mothers were pregnant and also that kids exposed to opioids in the womb had a little, but clinically insignificant, elevated risk for developmental problems.
Prescription opioid exposure at larger dosages and for two or more months during the first trimester was linked, according to researchers, to a marginally greater risk of mood disorders, ADHD, and intellectual impairment.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Results, however, also indicate that there was no discernible correlation between children exposed to opioids and their non-exposed siblings.
The results were released recently this month, the authors stated in a journal press release that “these results support cautious opioid prescribing for relief of pain during pregnancy, highlighting the importance of further research for more definitive guidelines.” Researchers came to the conclusion that more study is necessary because opioids can be useful in treating severe pain in certain expectant mothers.