# Prenatal Cannabis Use (PCU) and Development of Offspring Brain and Behavior During Early Life (0-18 Months)

> **NIH NIH R01** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $573,588

## Abstract

Twenty-nine states, the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia have legalized
medical and/or recreational cannabis use. Concurrently, the potency of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
has increased while perceptions regarding harms associated with regular use have become more permissive,
underscoring the importance of focused effort to evaluate the impact of cannabis use on health and behavior.
In particular, there is growing concern about potential adverse consequences of escalations in prenatal
cannabis use (PCU). Nearly 4% of pregnant U.S. women report past month cannabis use, representing a 1.6-
fold increase in the past decade. The potential impact of PCU on neonatal outcomes, including the neonatal
brain, and early childhood developmental milestones has proven difficult to study in part because PCU co-
occurs with other drug use, most notably tobacco, making it difficult to delineate the specific effects of PCU.
Further, PCU is comorbid with other maternal psychiatric illness (delinquency, externalizing behavior) as well
as familial vulnerability to problem substance use that can confound the interpretation of causal effects of PCU
on offspring brain and behavior. This proposal addresses current challenges in the literature by recruiting
pregnant women from an urban hospital outpatient clinic, where medical records show that ~80% of women
who use cannabis do not use other drugs, with the other ~20% of women who use cannabis reporting using
tobacco but very little to no alcohol or other drugs. Pregnant women with a recent history of cannabis use will
be selected; women reporting prenatal cannabis use only (PCU, n=200) will be compared with women
reporting no prenatal substance use (NPCU, n=200), to evaluate the role of PCU in (Aim 1) birth
characteristics (e.g., birthweight) and neonatal neurobehavior (e.g., excitability); (Aim 2) neonatal subcortical
morphology and structural and functional connectivity in 150 PCU and 100 sociodemographically matched
NPCU infants; (Aim 3) infant social-emotional behavior and temperament at 6, 12 and 18 months of age, as
well as mother-infant interactions; and (Aim 4) the extent to which brain structure and connectivity is related to
infant behavior during early life. Analyses will control for an index of other obstetric characteristics as well as
composite indices of maternal psychosocial health, family history and home environment. Prospective in
design, women recruited within the 1st trimester will be followed, with their offspring until 18 months
postpartum, affording detailed characterization of risk and protective influences that accompany PCU. PCU,
tobacco and other drug use will be biochemically validated. Women reporting PCU are more likely to be socio-
economically disadvantaged and thus, the economic burden of early childhood social-emotional difficulties may
be particularly pronounced in this group. Results from this study will directly impact the well-being of this
und...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10347302
- **Project number:** 5R01DA046224-04
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** ARPANA AGRAWAL
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $573,588
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10347302

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10347302, Prenatal Cannabis Use (PCU) and Development of Offspring Brain and Behavior During Early Life (0-18 Months) (5R01DA046224-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10347302. Licensed CC0.

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