Prevalence of cocaine and marijuana use in the last trimester of adolescent pregnancy: socio-demographic, psychosocial and behavioral characteristics.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the prevalence of cocaine and marijuana use during the third trimester of pregnancy in a population of 1000 teenage women of a public hospital in São Paulo, Brazil using hair analysis in order to avoid underestimation of data that could happen by the use of self-report questionnaires and describe socio-demographic, psychosocial and behavioral characteristics of the drug users.


RESULTS
Hair analysis has detected use of cocaine and/or marijuana in the third trimester of pregnancy in 6% of the patients: 4.0% used marijuana, 1.7% used cocaine and 3% used both drugs. They were about 17 years old, from low-income, poorly educated, unemployed, financially dependent and they had not planned the pregnancy. 10% of miscarriages have occurred in this population.


CONCLUSIONS
This study shows the psychosocial impairment associated to teenage pregnancy and use of cocaine and marijuana during gestation by this low-income population with reliable data of prevalence obtained through hair analysis.
Mitsuhiro
Sandro Sendin
SS
Alcohol and Drug Research Unit (Uniad), Psychiatry Department, Federal University of São Paulo, Rua Botucatu, 394, 04023 061, Brazil. mitsuhiro@uol.com.br
Chalem
Elisa
E
Barros
Marina Carvalho de Moraes
MC
Guinsburg
Ruth
R
Laranjeira
Ronaldo
R
D000293:Adolescent; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011263:Pregnancy Trimester, Third; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D049168:Pregnancy, Unplanned; D015995:Prevalence; D011610:Psychosocial Deprivation; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods