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Early data from an Auckland study shows infants exposed to methamphetamine in the womb are 4 1/2 times more likely to be born small. Exposure to P before birth is also associated with lower arousals from sleep and increased stress to the central nervous system - problems which Trecia Wouldes hoped to analyse further in her study.
Dr Wouldes, a developmental psychologist at Auckland University, is part of the Infant Development, Environment and Lifestyle study, an international long-term project looking at children born to mothers who use methamphetamine during pregnancy.
The New Zealand component of the study, which started last year, has 65 mothers enrolled to date, 30 of whom used methamphetamine during their pregnancy. Dr Wouldes said most had already given birth.
By the year's end, she hopes to have 100 methamphetamine mothers and 100 control subjects matched for socio-economic status enrolled in the study.
"We did a little bit of preliminary data analysis but we haven't done any recent data analysis because it wouldn't be a complete sample."
But early data seemed to confirm what has been observed in the project's four other sites in the United States, such as indications that babies exposed to P in the womb may be slower to wake from sleep.
"We have similar findings but are they significantly different from our control group? We haven't analysed them to determine that yet."
As was the find of increased stress to the central nervous system."
"All drugs, particularly methamphetamine, have an impact on the central nervous system, and so we find that although there's not a withdrawal syndrome like you might find with opiates, we're finding that there are some differences in reflexes and things like that. That may go away, because quite often these babies still have methamphetamine in their system when they're born," said Dr Wouldes.
"It may be that once it gets out of their system, everything will be fine, but we don't know that yet."
The study will assess the condition of the babies at birth and at one month, and has recently received funding from the Auckland Medical Research Foundation to follow the children until they are 12 months old.
The project was prompted by a sudden spike in the number of pregnant methamphetamine users being referred to the alcohol, drug and pregnancy team at National Women's Hospital.
Dr Keith Bedford, forensic programme manager at ESR, said there was no evidence that suggested P use in New Zealand had peaked.
