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Methamphetamine Effects on Child Brain Development
Manoa Professor Linda Chang authored a first of its kind study on the effects of methamphetamine use during pregnancy, which found the drug appears to cause abnormal brain development in children. The research was published in Neurology.
“Methamphetamine use is an increasing problem among women of childbearing age, leading to an increasing number of children with prenatal meth exposure,” says Chang. “But until now, the effects of prenatal meth exposure on the developing brain of a child were little known.”
For the study, brain scans were performed in Honolulu on 29 three- and four-year-old children whose mothers used meth while pregnant and 37 unexposed children of the same ages. The scans showed that children with prenatal meth exposure had differences in the white matter structure and maturation of their brains compared to unexposed children. The children with prenatal meth exposure had up to four percent lower diffusion of molecules in the white matter of their brains.
“Our findings suggest prenatal meth exposure accelerates brain development in an abnormal pattern,” says Chang. “Such abnormal brain development may explain why some children with prenatal meth exposure reach developmental milestones later than others.”