Researchers seek pregnant P users

Pregnant New Zealand women who have used methamphetamine will be asked to participate in an international study to monitor the drug's effect on babies and their development.

Dr Trecia Wouldes of Auckland University said the local research is being funded by America's National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Dr Wouldes will lead a team of university researchers and doctors from National Women's Hospital in monitoring 100 women who have used pure methamphetamine, or P, at any stage of their pregnancy and may have become dependent on the drug.

The research will also use a comparison group of 100 women who have not used P, she said.

The local research is part of the Infant Development Environment and Lifestyle study also being done in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Iowa and Oklahoma.

The lead researchers are based at Brown University Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.

Dr Wouldes said it would be the largest study of pregnant women who had used methamphetamine. She said 55 per cent of referrals last year to the National Women's alcohol and drug in pregnancy service - representing 35 births - were methamphetamine users.

Expectant mothers would be recruited through hospitals and midwives, she said. "I've been doing research with women who have been drug users for some time and a lot of them are very interested in whether it is going to have an effect on their child."