Correlation between drugs of abuse and alcohol by hair analysis: parents at risk for having children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

Cocaine reverses the naltrexone-induced reduction in operant ethanol self-administration: The effects on immediate-early gene expression in the rat prefrontal cortex

“…In a more recent study in Europe, 64% of the cocaine powder users (excluding crack cocaine users) reported frequent ethanol consumption (Gossop et al, 2006), and the concomitant use of ethanol was evident by analyses of blood and urine samples in 76% of cocaine-related cases of sudden death (Lucena et al, 2010). Finally, heavy chronic alcohol use is linked to a three-fold increased risk of cocaine use (Kulaga et al, 2010). These data support the idea that cocaine use could increase the vulnerability to the development of ethanol dependence (Rubio et al, 2008) and vice versa.…”

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: An Overview

“…First, any meconium assay will have the limitation of providing information on maternal drinking only after childbirth, and even then only for the latter two trimesters. An alternative approach would be to measure FAEEs in another tissue such as maternal hair (Kulaga et al 2010). In addition, other research is on-going on a range of other biomarkers, such as micro-RNA, and potential proteomic and metabolic markers (Datta et al 2008).…”

Determination of maternal-fetal biomarkers of prenatal exposure to ethanol: A review

“…From a total of 26 pregnant subjects whose hair was analyzed for FAEE, 19% tested positive for excessive drinking, with levels above 0.5 ng/mg. Subsequently, years later, Kulaga et al [70] demonstrated that the mothers who were positive for heavy chronic alcohol use had a threefold increased risk of testing positive for cocaine. However, Morini et al [71] reported that monitoring the levels of FAEEs in hair of pregnant women is not useful in detecting ethanol intake lower than 30 g/day.…”