SynthesisDevelopmental medicine and child neurology2019
Childhood neurodevelopment after prescription of maintenance methadone for opioid dependency in pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Developmental medicine and child neurology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Impact of exposure to opioids in pregnancy on offspring developmental outcomes in the preschool years: an umbrella review.BMJ paediatrics open · 2025Pooled it
- Utilization of health and supportive services amongst children with prenatal opioid exposure: a mixed methods and community-initiated analysis.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Fetal brain volumes and brain gyrification index associated with opioid exposure.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Animal Models of Prenatal Opioid Exposure: Insights into Impaired Neurodevelopment.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Anxiety, Depression, and Emotional Dysregulation Following Prenatal Substance Exposure.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- The impact of sleep in high-risk infants.Pediatric research · 2025Review
- 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
- 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
- Reviewing the Impact of Maternal Opioid Use Disorder on Fetal Development and Long-Term Pediatric Health Outcomes.Cureus · 2024Review
- Neurodevelopmental outcomes in children prenatally exposed to opioid maintenance treatment: A population-based study.Pharmacotherapy · 2024Article
- Ultrasound evaluation of brain parenchyma in preterm infants with prenatal opioid exposure.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2024Article
- Methadone directly impairs central nervous system cells in vitro.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Prenatal opioid exposure by likelihood of exposure and risk to prenatal development: Medicaid-covered births in Wisconsin, 2010-2019.Science advances · 2024Article
- Fetal and Infant Effects of Maternal Opioid Use during Pregnancy: A Literature Review including Clinical, Toxicological, Pharmacogenomic, and Epigenetic Aspects for Forensic Evaluation.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Antenatal care of women who use opioids: a qualitative study of practitioners' perceptions of strengths and challenges of current service provision in Scotland.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Impaired vision in children prenatally exposed to methadone: an observational cohort study.Eye (London, England) · 2024Observational
- Developmental implications of prenatal opioid exposure among school-aged children: a mixed methods and community-initiated analysis.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Outcomes of Babies with Opioid Exposure (OBOE): protocol of a prospective longitudinal cohort study.Pediatric research · 2023Article
- Article
- Executive functioning, behavioural, emotional, and cognitive difficulties in school-aged children prenatally exposed to methadone.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
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5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimTo systematically review and meta-analyse studies of neurodevelopmental outcome of children born to mothers prescribed methadone in pregnancy.
methodMEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO were searched for studies published from 1975 to 2017 reporting neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with prenatal methadone exposure.
resultsForty-one studies were identified (2283 participants). Eight studies were amenable to meta-analysis: at 2 years the Mental Development Index weighted mean difference of children with prenatal methadone exposure compared with unexposed infants was -4.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] -7.24 to -1.63), and the Psychomotor Development Index weighted mean difference was -5.42 (95% CI -10.55 to -0.28). Seven studies reported behavioural scores and six found scores to be lower among methadone-exposed children. Twelve studies reported visual outcomes: nystagmus and strabismus were common; five studies reported visual evoked potentials of which four described abnormalities. Factors that limited the quality of some studies, and introduced risk of bias, included absence of blinding, small sample size, high attrition, uncertainty about polydrug exposure, and lack of comparison group validity.
interpretationChildren born to mothers prescribed methadone in pregnancy are at risk of neurodevelopmental problems but risk of bias limits inference about harm. Research into management of opioid use disorder in pregnancy should include evaluation of childhood neurodevelopmental outcome. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Children born to opioid-dependent mothers prescribed methadone are at risk of neurodevelopmental impairment. Exposed infants have lower Mental Development Index and Psychomotor Development Index scores than unexposed children. Atypical visual evoked potentials, strabismus, and nystagmus have increased prevalence. Estimates of impairment may be biased by intermediate to poor quality evidence.
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