Infants born to women using narcotics during pregnancy had more abnormalities in the relative power spectra of qEEG recordings and more brain areas involved compared to infants whose mothers did not use drugs.

Twenty-eight infants (BW 2878 +/- 624g, GA 38 +/- 3wk) exposed to narcotics in utero were compared at term gestation to seven unexposed infants(BW 3470 +/- 725g, GA 39 +/- 1wks). Ninteen channels of EEG were recorded according to the International 10-20 system, and three to five minutes of analog EEG signal were filtered between 0.5 Hz and 30 Hz, the data digitized at a 102.4 Hz, sampling rate and stored on optical disk. Z-scores were obtained in relative power in the delta, alpha and theta bands in the (F)rontal, (C)entral,(T)emporal, (P)ariental, (O)ccipital or (V)ertex regions of the brain and compared to a normative database.

Clinical EEG's were abnormal in 25% of exposed and 29% of unexposed infants. However, abnormalities in the qEEG power spectra were noted in 57% of exposed and 14% of control infants (p<0.05). Among the 16 exposed infants with abnormalities, five had one region, one had two, two had three, five had four, one had five, and two had six different regions involved. In this group, the frequency of region involved was T>V>P=0>C>F. Prenatal drug exposure compromises neonatal brain activity as assessed by qEEG findings, a more accurate discriminator compared to the clinical EEG.