Abstract
Cocaine (C) is second only to marijuana (MJ) as a recreational drug in the U.S.A. To assess the teratogeniity of cocaine, we prospectively compared the prevalence of congenital malformations (CM) in 581 infants from 576 (DAM) drug abusing mothers (cocaine alone or with other drugs) with controls (8235 infants from 8180 mothers). Malformations were divided into major and minor.
Major CMs were higher when the combined data of all infants of DAMS (11/581) were compared to the controls (78/8235), (p=.04, chisquare test). The only other significant finding was the higher prevalence of CM in the C+ “Other” (3/16) vs any other infants of DAMs as well as controls, (p <.05, Fisher exact test). No other increase in the prevalence of CM was found in infants of cocaine (alone or with other drugs) vs other substance abusers or controls. The total incidence of CM was similar for infants of DAMs vs controls. Further studies are needed to elucidate the teratogenic effect of cocaine and its derivatives on humans.
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Rajegowda, B., Lala, R., Nagaraj, A. et al. IS COCAINE A TERATOGEN IN HUMANS?. Pediatr Res 21 (Suppl 4), 230 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198704010-00381
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198704010-00381