Skip to main content
NCBI home page
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal logoLink to CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal
. 1991 Mar 1;144(5):563–568.

Characteristics of pregnant women exposed to cocaine in Toronto between 1985 and 1990.

K Graham 1, G Koren 1
PMCID: PMC1452827  PMID: 1998903

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the characteristics of pregnant women exposed to cocaine. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Women attending the Motherisk Program, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, from September 1985 to March 1990. PATIENTS: All women who had admitted using cocaine before or during pregnancy. Of the two control groups the first comprised women who had admitted using cannabinoids but not cocaine before or during pregnancy and the second those who attended the clinic just before the cocaine case but who had not used illicit drugs. OUTCOME MEASURES: Age, marital status, ethnic background, number of pregnancies, children and elective or spontaneous abortions, socioeconomic status of woman and male partner, alcohol use, cigarette use, frequency of cocaine use and total amount taken. MAIN RESULTS: Of the 1625 women 91 (5.6%) admitted to using cocaine: 86 during the current pregnancy, 3 before the current pregnancy, 1 before planning a pregnancy and 1 during a previous pregnancy. None of the cocaine users were considered to be addicts; only 20% had used the drug more than 10 times. A total of 74 women used cannabinoids only. The mean age of the cocaine users was 27.1 (standard deviation [SD] 5.3) years; this was significantly lower than that of the control subjects (30.5 [SD 5.2] years) (p less than 0.001). More of the cocaine users than of the women in either of the two control groups were single (60% v. 38% and 14%, p less than 0.001). The cannabinoid users had significantly higher parity and the nonusers a significantly lower incidence of elective abortions than the cocaine users. The cocaine users had a significantly lower socioeconomic status than the control subjects (p less than 0.001); similarly, the male partners of the cocaine users had a significantly lower socioeconomic status than the partners of the control subjects (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant cocaine users who seek drug counselling represent a unique risk group, with clustering of factors such as alcohol and cigarette use and low socioeconomic status that compound the risk to the fetus. New strategies should be explored to identify such women, especially addicts, in their communities and to urge them to seek counselling and treatment.

Full text

PDF
563

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bingol N., Fuchs M., Diaz V., Stone R. K., Gromisch D. S. Teratogenicity of cocaine in humans. J Pediatr. 1987 Jan;110(1):93–96. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(87)80297-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Chasnoff I. J., Burns W. J., Schnoll S. H., Burns K. A. Cocaine use in pregnancy. N Engl J Med. 1985 Sep 12;313(11):666–669. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198509123131105. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chasnoff I. J., Bussey M. E., Savich R., Stack C. M. Perinatal cerebral infarction and maternal cocaine use. J Pediatr. 1986 Mar;108(3):456–459. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(86)80896-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chasnoff I. J., Chisum G. M., Kaplan W. E. Maternal cocaine use and genitourinary tract malformations. Teratology. 1988 Mar;37(3):201–204. doi: 10.1002/tera.1420370304. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chasnoff I. J., Griffith D. R., MacGregor S., Dirkes K., Burns K. A. Temporal patterns of cocaine use in pregnancy. Perinatal outcome. JAMA. 1989 Mar 24;261(12):1741–1744. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Chasnoff I. J., Landress H. J., Barrett M. E. The prevalence of illicit-drug or alcohol use during pregnancy and discrepancies in mandatory reporting in Pinellas County, Florida. N Engl J Med. 1990 Apr 26;322(17):1202–1206. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199004263221706. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Cherukuri R., Minkoff H., Feldman J., Parekh A., Glass L. A cohort study of alkaloidal cocaine ("crack") in pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol. 1988 Aug;72(2):147–151. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Feldman Y., Koren G., Mattice K., Shear H., Pellegrini E., MacLeod S. M. Determinants of recall and recall bias in studying drug and chemical exposure in pregnancy. Teratology. 1989 Jul;40(1):37–45. doi: 10.1002/tera.1420400106. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Frank D. A., Zuckerman B. S., Amaro H., Aboagye K., Bauchner H., Cabral H., Fried L., Hingson R., Kayne H., Levenson S. M. Cocaine use during pregnancy: prevalence and correlates. Pediatrics. 1988 Dec;82(6):888–895. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Koren G., Feldman Y., Shear N. Motherisk--a new approach to antenatal counselling of drug/chemical exposure. Vet Hum Toxicol. 1986 Dec;28(6):563–565. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. MacGregor S. N., Keith L. G., Chasnoff I. J., Rosner M. A., Chisum G. M., Shaw P., Minogue J. P. Cocaine use during pregnancy: adverse perinatal outcome. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1987 Sep;157(3):686–690. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9378(87)80029-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Madden J. D., Payne T. F., Miller S. Maternal cocaine abuse and effect on the newborn. Pediatrics. 1986 Feb;77(2):209–211. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Oro A. S., Dixon S. D. Perinatal cocaine and methamphetamine exposure: maternal and neonatal correlates. J Pediatr. 1987 Oct;111(4):571–578. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(87)80125-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Teske M. P., Trese M. T. Retinopathy of prematurity-like fundus and persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous associated with maternal cocaine use. Am J Ophthalmol. 1987 May 15;103(5):719–720. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9394(14)74343-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal are provided here courtesy of Canadian Medical Association

RESOURCES