Trial reportDrug and alcohol dependence2018
Prenatal exposure to methadone or buprenorphine: Early childhood developmental outcomes.
Trial report in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2018. 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, 140 citations in OpenAlex.
- Maintenance agonist treatments for opiate-dependent pregnant women.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Effects of opioid use in pregnancy on pediatric development and behaviour in children older than age 2: Systematic review.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2019Pooled it
- Cognitive and Motor Outcomes of Children With Prenatal Opioid Exposure: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA network open · 2019Pooled it
- Prenatal exposure to buprenorphine or methadone and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes: population based cohort study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2026Article
- Association between perinatal mood and anxiety disorders treatment status and infant outcomes among privately insured.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Animal Models of Prenatal Opioid Exposure: Insights into Impaired Neurodevelopment.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Neurodevelopmental challenges at age four following fetal exposure to maternal opioid maintenance treatment.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Article
- Beyond a simple cause and effect relationship: Exploring the long-term outcomes of children prenatally exposed to opioids and other substances.Seminars in perinatology · 2025Review
- Gestational Opioid Exposure: From Morphine to MOUD - How Opioids Impact Offspring Development and Maternal Care.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Evaluating the Effect of Maternal Opioid Maintenance Dose on the NOWS-COS Outcome Criteria: A Pilot Study.Clinical pediatrics · 2024Article
- Neurodevelopmental outcomes in children prenatally exposed to opioid maintenance treatment: A population-based study.Pharmacotherapy · 2024Article
- Neurobehavioral outcomes of infants exposed to buprenorphine-naloxone compared with naltrexone during pregnancy.Early human development · 2024Article
- Early developmental trajectory of children with prenatal alcohol and opioid exposure.Pediatric research · 2024Article
- GABA system as the cause and effect in early development.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- Advances in animal models of prenatal opioid exposure.Trends in neurosciences · 2024Review
- Effects of prenatal opioid exposure on infant sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity.Psychophysiology · 2024Article
- Prenatal Exposure to Opioids and Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children: A Bayesian Mediation Analysis.American journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Recruitment and retention strategies to promote research engagement among caregivers and their children: A scoping review.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2024Article
- The Psychiatrist's Role in Treating Perinatal Opioid Use Disorder and Reducing Maternal Mortality.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 9 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMethadone and buprenorphine are recommended to treat opioid use disorders during pregnancy. However, the literature on the relationship between longer-term effects of prenatal exposure to these medications and childhood development is both spare and inconsistent.
methodsParticipants were 96 children and their mothers who participated in MOTHER, a randomized controlled trial of opioid-agonist pharmacotherapy during pregnancy. The present study examined child growth parameters, cognition, language abilities, sensory processing, and temperament from 0 to 36 months of the child's life. Maternal perceptions of parenting stress, home environment, and addiction severity were also examined.
resultsTests of mean differences between children prenatally exposed to methadone vs. buprenorphine over the three-year period yielded 2/37 significant findings for children. Similarly, tests of mean differences between children treated for NAS relative to those not treated for NAS yielded 1/37 significant finding. Changes over time occurred for 27/37 child outcomes including expected child increases in weight, head and height, and overall gains in cognitive development, language abilities, sensory processing, and temperament. For mothers, significant changes over time in parenting stress (9/17 scales) suggested increasing difficulties with their children, notably seen in increasing parenting stress, but also an increasingly enriched home environment (4/7 scales)
conclusionsFindings strongly suggest no deleterious effects of buprenorphine relative to methadone or of treatment for NAS severity relative to not-treated for NAS on growth, cognitive development, language abilities, sensory processing, and temperament. Moreover, findings suggest that prenatal opioid agonist exposure is not deleterious to normal physical and mental development.
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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.