ArticleCurrent neuropharmacology2008
The effects of maternally administered methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone on offspring: review of human and animal data.
Article in Current neuropharmacology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 154 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Guideline
- Naltrexone depot formulations for opioid and alcohol dependence: a systematic review.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2011Pooled it
- Methadone versus morphine for treatment of neonatal abstinence syndrome: a prospective randomized clinical trial.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2015Trial
- Buprenorphine versus methadone in pregnant opioid-dependent women: a prospective multicenter study.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2011Trial
- Fetal neurobehavioral effects of exposure to methadone or buprenorphine.Neurotoxicology and teratologyTrial
- Transcriptomic Reprogramming of the Human Placenta Following Maternal Opioid Exposure: Identification of Altered Metabolic and Translational Pathways.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Article
- Adolescent prefrontal and amygdala molecular signatures of perinatal morphine versus buprenorphine exposure in mice.Neurotoxicology · 2026Article
- Anxiety, Depression, and Emotional Dysregulation Following Prenatal Substance Exposure.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Subcutaneous Buprenorphine Is an Acceptable Preoperative Analgesic in Pregnant Ewes Undergoing Hysterotomy (Ovis aries).Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2025Article
- Maternal exposure to buprenorphine, but not methadone, during pregnancy reduces social play behavior across two generations of offspring.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Gestational Opioid Exposure: From Morphine to MOUD - How Opioids Impact Offspring Development and Maternal Care.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Prenatal methadone exposure produces functional and molecular alterations in the basolateral amygdala and decreased voluntary ethanol intake in female, but not male offspring.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Differential Effects of Prenatal Buprenorphine and Methadone on Postnatal Growth and Gene Expression in the Nucleus Accumbens.Developmental psychobiology · 2025Article
- The effects of buprenorphine and morphine during pregnancy: Impact of exposure length on maternal brain, behavior, and offspring neurodevelopment.Neuropharmacology · 2024Article
- DNA methylation patterns in umbilical cord blood from infants of methadone maintained opioid dependent mothers.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Methadone directly impairs central nervous system cells in vitro.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Melatonin's protective effect against placental transfer of Methadone in mice: An experimental study.International journal of reproductive biomedicine · 2024Article
- Investigating the neurobiology of maternal opioid use disorder and prenatal opioid exposure using brain organoid technology.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2024Review
- Perinatal morphine but not buprenorphine affects gestational and offspring neurobehavioral outcomes in mice.Neurotoxicology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Most women using heroin are of reproductive age with major risks for their infants. We review clinical and experimental data on fetal, neonatal and postnatal complications associated with methadone, the current "gold standard", and compare these with more recent, but limited, data on developmental effects of buprenorphine, and naltrexone. Methadone is a micro-opioid receptor agonist and is commonly recommended for treatment of opioid dependence during pregnancy. However, it has undesired outcomes including neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Animal studies also indicate detrimental effects on growth, behaviour, neuroanatomy and biochemistry, and increased perinatal mortality. Buprenorphine is a partial micro-opioid receptor agonist and a kappa-opioid receptor antagonist. Clinical observations suggest that buprenorphine during pregnancy is similar to methadone on developmental measures but is potentially superior in reducing the incidence and prognosis of NAS. However, small animal studies demonstrate that low doses of buprenorphine during pregnancy and lactation lead to changes in offspring behaviour, neuroanatomy and biochemistry. Naltrexone is a non-selective opioid receptor antagonist. Although data are limited, humans treated with oral or sustained-release implantable naltrexone suggest outcomes potentially superior to those with methadone or buprenorphine. However, animal studies using oral or injectable naltrexone have shown developmental changes following exposure during pregnancy and lactation, raising concerns about its use in humans. Animal studies using chronic exposure, equivalent to clinical depot formulations, are required to evaluate safety. While each treatment is likely to have maternal advantages and disadvantages, studies are urgently required to determine which is optimal for offspring in the short and long term.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.