title: Prevalence of cocaine and marijuana use in the last trimester of adolescent pregnancy: socio-demographic, psychosocial and behavioral characteristics.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Alcohol and Drug Research Unit (Uniad), Psychiatry Department, Federal University of São Paulo, Rua Botucatu, 394, 04023 061, Brazil. mitsuhiro@uol.com.br
authors.forename: Sandro Sendin
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Mitsuhiro
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chalem
authors.forename: Marina Carvalho de Moraes
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Barros
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guinsburg
authors.forename: Ronaldo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laranjeira
mesh_terms: 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