Patterns of Methamphetamine Use During Pregnancy: Results from the Infant Development, Environment, and Lifestyle (IDEAL) Study

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to characterize methamphetamine (MA) usage patterns during pregnancy, examine whether patterns of MA use are associated with sociodemographic characteristics and prenatal care, and test the hypothesis that persistent or increasing MA use during pregnancy is associated with greater use of other illicit drugs. The sample consisted of 191 MA-using mothers who participated in a large-scale multi-site study of prenatal MA exposure. Patterns of substance use were assessed by maternal self-report via the Substance Use Inventory (SUI), which included detailed information about MA use, including frequency, quantity, and maximum use during each trimester of pregnancy. The study demostrated that on average, the prevalence of MA use decreased over the three trimesters of pregnancy (84.3% vs. 56.0% vs. 42.4%), and decreased frequency was observed among users from the first trimester to the third (3.1 vs. 2.4 vs. 1.5 days/week). Closer examination of the individual patterns revealed that 29.3% of women maintained consistently high frequency, 9.4% increased frequency, 25.7% had a stable low/moderate pattern, and 35.6% decreased their frequency of MA over the course of pregnancy. These four groups did not differ in sociodemographic characteristics; women who decreased their use of MA had significantly more prenatal visits compared to the consistently high-use group, but were the most likely to use alcohol during their pregnancy. In conclusion, this article elucidated the different patterns of MA use in this community sample. Approximately, one third of MA-using mothers could be classified as consistently high users with a profile of use with the greatest risk to themselves and potentially to their infants including high levels of MA use throughout pregnancy and fewer prenatal care visits. Overall, we found that MA use declined across pregnancy; however, a substantial proportion of users had consistently high or increasing MA use, while those who decreased their MA frequency had a higher prevalence of polydrug use. Future research will investigate the association of these patterns with neonatal outcomes.

Alcohol Use Before and During Unwanted Pregnancy

“…Surprisingly, we found that both marijuana and other drug use before pregnancy recognition were negatively associated with alcohol severity at baseline; one possibility is that women substitute one for the other. This is consistent with research that has found that the prevalence of alcohol use was higher among women who reduced methamphetamine use over the course of pregnancy than among women who did not reduce methamphetamine use (Della Grotta et al, 2010). There is some suggestion that this is occurring in our sample, as more than one fourth of those reporting drug use before pregnancy recognition were using either only alcohol or only drugs one week after termination seeking, with somewhat more using only alcohol.…”

What Does Diffusion Tensor Imaging Reveal About the Brain and Cognition in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders?

“…Many individuals who have been exposed to alcohol prenatally were also exposed to other drugs of abuse (Della Grotta et al 2010;Perham-Hester and Gessner 1997). The DTI literature examining individuals with prenatal exposure Fig.…”

Effects of Neonatal Methamphetamine and Stress on Brain Monoamines and Corticosterone in Preweanling Rats

“…Children exposed to intrauterine MA show changes in cellular metabolism in the striatum and frontal lobe (Smith et al 2001; Chang et al 2009) and significant volume reductions in the putamen, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, and hippocampus (Derauf et al 2009; Smith et al 2015) that correlate with attention, verbal memory, and reaction time deficits (Chang et al 2004). Nearly half (42 %) of women who reported MA use during pregnancy continued using during the third trimester (Della Grotta et al 2010). In animal models, the preweaning period of rat brain development [postnatal day (P)1–20] is approximately equivalent to human development during the second half of gestation (Rice and Barone 2000; Workman et al 2013), and MA exposure during this time induces changes to developing monoamine systems (for review, see Jablonski et al 2016a).…”