Opioid use during pregnancy can stunt child’s learning

CHICAGO — Learning disabilities and other special-education needs are common in children born with opioid-related symptoms from their mother’s drug use while pregnant, according to the first big U.S. study to examine potential long-term problems in these infants.

About 1 in 7 affected children required special classroom services for problems including developmental delays and speech or language difficulties, compared with about 1 in 10 children not exposed to opioids before birth, the study found.

The study highlights the “absolutely critical” importance of early detection and intervention before Babies born dependent on opioids go through withdrawal symptoms that can include tremors, hard-to-soothe crying, diarrhea and difficulty feeding. This baby is in a special neonatal intensive-care unit at a hospital in Louisville, Ky., that is dedicated to treating those babies.

these children reach school age, to give them a better chance of academic success, said Dr. Nathalie Maitre, a developmental specialist

at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. “It really confirms what those of us who do neurodevelopment follow-up of these children are seeing.”

The study involved about 7,200 children ages 3 to 8 enrolled in Tennessee’s Medicaid program. Nearly 2,000 of them were born with what doctors call “neonatal abstinence syndrome.” It’s a collection of symptoms caused by withdrawal from their pregnant mother’s use of opioid drugs such as prescription painkillers, heroin or fentanyl. The drugs can pass through the placenta into the developing nervous system.

Tremors, hard-tosoothe crying, diarrhea and difficulty feeding and sleeping are among signs that infants are going through withdrawal.

In Tennessee, most children born with withdrawal symptoms are enrolled in that state’s Medicaid program. Also in Tennessee, a syndrome diagnosis qualifies kids to receive early intervention services.

A comparable study undertaken last year in Australia suggested that affected children had worse academic test scores in seventh grade than other kids.

The researchers said taking into account other factors that could affect children’s development — including birth weight and mothers’ education and tobacco use — didn’t change the results.

Dr. Mary-Margaret Fill, the lead author of the study, said affected children “are definitely not doomed. There are great programs and services that exist to help these children and their families. We just have to make sure they get plugged in.”