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This version was published on February 1, 2008
Clinical Pediatrics, Vol. 47, No. 1, 58-65 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0009922807305872

Prenatal Drug Exposure: Effects on Cognitive Functioning at 5 Years of Age

Margaret B. Pulsifer

Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, mpulsifer{at}partners.org

Arlene M. Butz

Department of Pediatrics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

Megan O'Reilly Foran

Prince George's County Public Schools, Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Harolyn M. E. Belcher, MD, MPH

Department of Pediatrics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, Department of Mental Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, Department of Neurology and Developmental Medicine, The Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

The goal of this cross-sectional study was to compare cognitive functioning at age 5 years in prenatal drug-exposed children with nondrug-exposed children from a comparable inner-city environment. Children with prenatal drug exposure scored significantly lower on measures of language, school readiness skills, impulse control, and visual attention span/sequencing than controls matched for age and socioeconomic status. Intelligence, visual-motor, manual dexterity, and sustained attention scores were not significantly different between groups. The total sample scored significantly below the normative mean on standardized measures of intelligence, language, school readiness, visual-motor skills, impulse control, and sustained attention, with 40% scoring at least 1 standard deviation below the mean (IQ < 85) on a measure of intelligence. Findings suggest that children with prenatal drug exposure are at increased risk for learning and attention problems and are in need of close developmental surveillance and possible intervention to support school success and improve behavioral outcome.

Key Words: prenatal drug exposure • intelligence • impulsivity • attention.


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