ReviewFrontiers in pharmacology2018
Screening Pregnant Women and Their Neonates for Illicit Drug Use: Consideration of the Integrated Technical, Medical, Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues.
Review in Frontiers in pharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 2 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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Effects of Cannabis on Female Reproductive Health Across the Life Course.Cannabis and cannabinoid research · 2021Pooled it
- International Perspectives on the Implications of Cannabis Legalization: A Systematic Review & Thematic Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Pooled it
- Disparities in Healthcare Providers' Substance Use Detection Practices for Pregnant Patients.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Review
- Prospective observational study quantifying maternal-fetal fentanyl transmission in epidural analgesia infusion using umbilical cord blood and neonatal meconium.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Observational
- Racial disparities in drug toxicology testing among pregnant women & infants: a meta-analysis and systematic review.Health affairs scholar · 2026Review
- Neonatal Toxicology Testing: Ethical Considerations for Pediatricians.Hospital pediatrics · 2026Article
- Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Position Statement: Decriminalization of substance use disorder in pregnancy.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Content Analysis of Maternal Toxicology Testing Policies to Inform Equity in Substance Use Disorder Identification.Maternal and child health journal · 2025Article
- Racial Equity in Urine Drug Screening Policies in Labor and Delivery.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Substance use during pregnancy and childhood dental caries: a Brazilian cohort study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Evaluating maternal drug use disparities, risk factors and outcomes in Northeast Arkansas: a pre, during, and post-COVID-19 pandemic analysis.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Understanding the needs of postpartum emerging adults with substance use disorders to improve recovery supports.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Prevalence of psychosocial issues among pregnant women who do and do not use illicit substances.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2024Article
- A Systematic Review of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Prevalence of Psychosocial Issues Among Pregnant Women Who Do and Do Not Use Illicit Substances.Research square · 2023Article
- Can Umbilical Cord and Meconium Results Be Directly Compared? Analytical Approach Matters.Journal of analytical toxicology · 2023Article
- Analysis of umbilical cord tissue as an indicator ofFrontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
- Prevalence of Licit and Illicit Drugs Use during Pregnancy in Mexican Women.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Social Construction of Target Populations: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Policy Approaches to Perinatal Illicit Substance Screening.Policy, politics & nursing practice · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
North America is currently suffering from one of the worst epidemics of illicit drug use in recent history: the opioid crisis. Pregnant women are not immune to the ravages of substance misuse which affects themselves, their pregnancies, and the wider community. The prevalence of drug misuse in pregnancy is not well quantified due to the lack of good validated tests, cooperation between clinicians and scientists developing tests, and consensus as to who should be tested and how results should be used. A wide range of tissues can be tested for drug use, including maternal blood, urine, and hair; neonatal meconium, urine, and hair; and placenta and umbilical cord tissues. Testing methods range from simple spectrophotometry and clinical chemistry to sophisticated analytical HPLC or mass spectrometry techniques. The drive for ever greater accuracy and sensitivity must be balanced with the necessities of medical practice requiring minimally invasive sampling, rapid turnaround, and techniques that can be realistically utilized in a clinical laboratory. Better screening tests have great potential to improve neonatal and maternal medical outcomes by enhancing the speed and accuracy of diagnosis. They also have great promise for public health monitoring, policy development, and resource allocation. However, women can and have been arrested for positive drug screens with even preliminary results used to remove children from custody, before rigorous confirmatory testing is completed. Balancing the scientific, medical, public health, legal, and ethical aspects of screening tests for drugs in pregnancy is critical for helping to address this crisis at all levels.
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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.