Methadone No Answer for Addicts’ Children
By HILL, Ruth
BABIES of mothers on methadone could be at higher risk of premature birth, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome (Sids), an Auckland University study has found.
Psychological Medicine Department senior lecturer Trecia Wouldes, who has studied the development of children exposed to prenatal drug use, said methadone was prescribed to pregnant women as “a harm minimisation” strategy.
But no attention was paid to the long- term effects on the child.
“Methadone has become the gold standard of treatment, mainly because it’s cheap,” she told the inaugural meeting of the Infant Mental Health Association in Wellington recently.
“But all it does is block the effects of opiates — it does nothing to address the psycho-social issues that have caused users to become addicted in the first place.”
A study of 30 babies born to methadone users found many were born prematurely, suffering low birth weights and respiratory distress, and between 40 and 60 per cent required treatment for methadone addiction and hospital stays of up to three months.
Some newborns needed morphine to alleviate their distressing symptoms.
Three of the babies died of Sids.
About 25 per cent of New Zealanders on the methadone programme (which costs about $13 a day) are women of child-bearing age.
Dr Wouldes said methadone was not solely to blame. These babies were born into “chaotic and dysfunctional environments”, to parents with multiple addictions and other mental health problems, often struggling with poverty and family violence.
The infant daughter of Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, who died of an overdose last year, may be one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, but she may face developmental hurdles as a result of her mother’s methadone treatment.
Separate research into the effects of methamphetamine use on babies (part of an international study in association with Brown University in the United States) found most P addicts took the drug throughout their pregnancies.
The vast majority also used other drugs while pregnant, including alcohol (85 per cent), tobacco (75 per cent) and marijuana (80 per cent).
Alcohol remains the single biggest cause of mental retardation worldwide through foetal exposure.
Dr Wouldes said any move to address the mental health needs of these vulnerable babies and their families had to be multi- disciplinary, family-focused, culturally appropriate and “more carrot than stick”.
“There is no point in criminalising mothers, they just disappear.
“US studies have found that for every $1 spent on early intervention, it saves $6 later on.”
More research was needed on the “protective factors”.
“Some children born into the worst circumstances grow up to have full and happy lives . . . we need to know why.”
Physical and cognitive development would prove less important than their social and emotional environment, she suggested.
“If their emotional needs are looked after, the rest takes care of itself.”
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