SynthesisAddiction (Abingdon, England)2024
Birth, cognitive and behavioral effects of intrauterine cannabis exposure in infants and children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review: the impact of maternal pre-and postnatal cannabis use on the behavioral and emotional regulation in early childhood.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- A Web-Based Intervention for Reducing Sexually Transmitted Infections and Substance Use During Pregnancy: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Trial
- Neurodevelopmental outcomes following prenatal cannabinoid exposure: a systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Review
- Innovative Methods for Prenatal Cannabis Exposure: Vapor Inhalation Chamber and Metabolite Quantification in Prairie Voles and Rats.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Before Birth, Beyond Childhood: Understanding the Influence of Prenatal Substance Exposure on Psychiatric Diagnoses.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Associations of Low-Level Prenatal Alcohol and Cannabis Exposure With Adolescent Cognitive Trajectories.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- Self-Reported Cannabis Use in Pregnancy and Maternal Psychological Health.Cannabis (Albuquerque, N.M.) · 2026Article
- Investigating Links Between Prenatal Cannabis Exposure and Brain Development Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging Techniques: A Narrative Review.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- A systematic review investigating prenatal cannabis and tobacco co-exposure: Impacts on neonatal, behavioral, cognitive and physiological outcomes.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Review
- Perinatal omega-3 sex-selectively mitigates neuropsychiatric impacts of prenatal THC in the cortico-striatal-hippocampal circuit.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Evidence on the effect of in-utero cannabis exposure in neonates.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2025Review
- Prenatal Downregulation of CBThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Neurodevelopmental effects of perinatal exposure to cannabis on progeny: A narrative review.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Review
- Cannabis Use Disorder Among Insured Pregnant Women in the U.S., 2015-2020.American journal of preventive medicine · 2025Article
- Substance use and use disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2025Review
- Longitudinal Associations Between Cannabis Use during Pregnancy and Child Cognitive, Motor, and Language Development at 2 Years Old.Maternal and child health journal · 2025Article
- Cannabis and psychopathology: 2024 Snapshot of a meandering journey.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2025Review
- Cannabis use patterns, motivations, and reasons for abstinence in pregnancy.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Recruiting marijuana-exposed maternal-infant dyads for longitudinal study: a feasibility assessment.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Prenatal cannabis exposure, the brain, and psychopathology during early adolescence.Nature. Mental health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsΔ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive component of cannabis, has been implicated in affecting fetal neurodevelopment by readily crossing the placenta. However, little is known regarding the long-term effects of intrauterine cannabis exposure. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized prospective and cross-sectional human studies to measure the effects of intrauterine cannabis exposure on birth, behavioral, psychological and cognitive outcomes in infancy until early childhood.
methodsReporting according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, cross-sectional and prospective studies published from database inception until June 2023, investigating developmental outcomes of infants, toddlers and young children with intrauterine cannabis exposure were considered. All articles were obtained from PubMed or PsycINFO databases.
resultsThe literature search resulted in 932 studies, in which 57 articles met eligibility criteria. The meta-analysis revealed that intrauterine cannabis exposure increases the risk of preterm delivery [odds ratio (OR) = 1.68, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.05-2.71, P = 0.03], low birth weight (OR = 2.60, CI = 1.71-3.94, P < 0.001) and requirement for neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission (OR = 2.51, CI = 1.46-4.31; P < 0.001). Our qualitative synthesis suggests that intrauterine cannabis exposure may be associated with poorer attention and externalizing problems in infancy and early childhood. We found no evidence for impairments in other cognitive domains or internalizing behaviors.
conclusionsPrenatal cannabis use appears to be associated with lower birth weight, preterm birth and neonatal intensive care unit admission in newborns, but there is little evidence that prenatal cannabis exposure adversely impacts behavioral or cognitive outcomes in early childhood, with the exception of attention and externalizing problems.
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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.