Effects of Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy on Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes
Project Summary: In the US, 14-21% of pregnant women are exposed to opioids during pregnancy. This re- flects a doubling of prescribed opioid use and opioid use disorder (OUD) in pregnancy in the past dec- ade. Opioid relapse during pregnancy and after delivery is high due to post-partum depression and other psy- chosocial factors. In parallel, neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) rates have increased more than 3 to 20 fold since 2000. Every 25 minutes, a baby is born dependent to opioids in the US. Children exposed to opioids pre- natally and in the neonatal period are at risk of opioid misuse later in life, and may develop cognitive, behavior- al and neurodevelopmental problems. All these preventable public health crises confer a significant societal and economic burden, with loss of productive life. Despite the high prevalence of exposure to opioids, little is known about the factors predisposing to poor maternal outcomes, and neurodevelopmental outcomes in chil- dren with maternal OU