A new study finds that pregnant mothers who use methamphetamine have an increased risk of delivering underweight babies. Meth-using mothers had three-and-a-half times increased risk of delivering underweight babies. The study is published in the September issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Study author Dr. Barry Lester, a pediatrics professor at Brown University and director of the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk said that meth is 'now the problematic drug of choice in the West and Midwest, and it is creeping east.'The study included 1,618 women aged 25 at an average for the study. The women were questioned whether they used meth and researchers checked up on the information. Around 84 women took the drug, and 1,534 did not take it.
Babies exposed to the drug weight just about 7 pounds, while babies not exposed weighed 7.5 pounds. 'I would not want us to make the same mistake with meth,' Lester said. 'The big change we`ve seen since the 1980s is more of an appreciation for the importance and value of treatment.' The researchers plan to conduct long-term studies on the issue.
Source-Medindia
RAS
