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The health and development of children whose mothers are on methadone maintenance
Author(s) -
Burns E. Claire,
O'Driscoll Margaret,
Wason Gem
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
child abuse review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-0852
pISSN - 0952-9136
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0852(199605)5:2<113::aid-car247>3.0.co;2-g
Subject(s) - methadone maintenance , methadone , psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , psychiatry
The health and development of a group of children aged 3‐7 years born to and reared by mothers who abused opiates when pregnant and who remain on methadone maintenance was compared to a group of age and socially matched control children. There was no difference between the two groups in terms of health and development although the children whose mothers were on methadone had smaller head circumference measurements than the controls. More than half of the index children had been on the child protection register during infancy; all but one were off the register at the time of the study. The results suggest that drug‐abusing women who are on methadone maintenance and attending a drug dependency unit may rear and care for their children as well as parents from a similar social background who are not drug abusers.