Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for FREE ACCESS to this landmark database

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Clinical Pediatrics
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
0009922807305872v1
47/1/58    most recent
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (2)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pulsifer, M. B.
Right arrow Articles by Belcher, H. M. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Pulsifer, M. B.
Right arrow Articles by Belcher, H. M. E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

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.

This version was published on February 1, 2008

Clinical Pediatrics, Vol. 47, No. 1, 58-65 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0009922807305872
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?