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Journal of the National Medical Association logoLink to Journal of the National Medical Association
. 1993 Oct;85(10):758–760.

Psychological characteristics related to cocaine use during pregnancy: a postpartum assessment.

T L Strickland 1, R James 1, H Myers 1, W Lawson 1, X Bean 1, J Mapps 1
PMCID: PMC2568218  PMID: 8254692

Abstract

This study assessed four psychological factors that have been suggested by previous research to be highly correlated with drug use. Twenty-one postpartum urban African-American women served as the research participants. At parturition, 10 infants tested positive for cocaine and 11 did not. Measures of depression (Beck Depression Index), anxiety (Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory), anger/self-control (Self-Analysis Questionnaire), and sociopathy (California Personality Inventory subscale) were obtained from the mothers within 6 weeks of delivery. Women who gave birth to cocaine-positive infants were significantly more depressed and had significantly higher sociopathy scores than their cocaine-negative counterparts. No differences with respect to anxiety and anger were obtained. The implications of these findings, as well as the potential adverse effects of cocaine use during pregnancy, are discussed.

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Selected References

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

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