title: A Unique Opportunity to Study Short and Long Term Consequences in Children Prenatally Exposed to Illicit Drugs and Opioid Maintenance Treatment Using Czech and Scandinavian Registers.
abstract: Licit and illicit drug use in pregnant women constitutes a long lasting and serious problem worldwide. Information on long-term effects of maternal drug use on the child is limited. Nationwide registers provide a great potential to study short and long-term consequences for children exposed to licit and illicit drugs during pregnancy. We discuss this potential, with a special emphasis on exposure to methamphetamine, heroin and prescription drugs used for opioid maintenance treatment (OMT). We also discuss the advantages of register data and of merging such data from different regions. The Czech and Scandinavian registers are largely comparable and provide great opportunities to conduct innovative research. For instance, using Czech and Scandinavian cohorts we can compare groups with similar characteristics, such as mothers in OMT and mothers addicted to other drugs while also controlling for important confounding factors such as health and socio-economic status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gabrhelík
authors.affiliation: Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Blanka
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nechanská
authors.affiliation: Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.|National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addiction, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Viktor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mravčík
authors.affiliation: Norwegian institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.|Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Skurtveit
authors.affiliation: Norwegian institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Ingunn Olea
authors.initials: IO
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.affiliation: Norwegian institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Marte
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Handal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000633:toxicity*; D018153:Czech Republic / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D003932:Heroin / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008694:Methamphetamine / Q000633:toxicity*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009292:Narcotic Antagonists / Q000633:toxicity; D058850:Opiate Substitution Treatment; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D012042:Registries; D012537:Scandinavian and Nordic Countries / Q000453:epidemiology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D009292:Narcotic Antagonists; D008694:Methamphetamine; D003932:Heroin
keywords: children; drug use; methamphetamine; national health registry; opioid maintenance treatment; pregnancy; registry-linkage study