Deformities in Babies Due to Drug Abuse

The use of certain drugs during pregnancy can cause mental and physical deformities that may limit your child. Avoiding drugs--including nicotine, alcohol and illicit drugs, and some over-the-counter medicine--is vital to the health of your unborn baby.

Significance

• According to the Merck Manuals, 90 percent of women use prescription, over-the-counter or illegal drugs during their pregnancy. These drugs include alcohol and tobacco, and illicit drugs like heroin and amphetamines, as well as over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen.

Alcohol

• Alcohol is the major cause of drug-related deformities in babies. According to the CDC, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), are a series of deformities that occur as a result of alcohol use by pregnant women. Characteristics of FASD include learning disabilities, low body weight, and small head size.

Nicotine

• In a study published in the October 2009 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers found evidence that tobacco use may cause a deformity in the development of the brain. The study found that women who smoked nicotine were more likely to have offspring with psychotic episodes.

Marijuana

• In the same smoking study, researchers were unable to link psychotic episodes to marijuana use during pregnancy, fingering tobacco, rather than the act of smoking, as the cause of the developmental deformity. However, in a 1983 study by Bloch, large doses of cannabis were shown to cause reduced growth in laboratory rats and mice.

Warning

• Even herbal supplements or over-the-counter drugs like headache medicine or cold and flu medicine can cause deformities in babies. Contact your doctor before taking any medication during pregnancy.