Infancy
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Due Date
Infancy
The abuse of Marijuana is a major public health concern in the United States, with an average of about 11% of the adult population having abused the drug over the past year (SAMHSA, 2010). Marijuana appears to be the drug that is frequently abused amongst women, inclusive of perinatal women in the US. For the expectant mothers, the drug is associated with neonatal morbidity with results across the study amongst the expectant mothers being inconsistent. As for the infants, marijuana is associated with a reduction in gestation period and a sluggish growth of the fetus, which may result in premature birth.
Being expectant is usually associated with having an opportunity for increased motivation to change, which aids in reduced abuse of marijuana among women. However, little research has been conducted on controlled interventions for drug abuse during perinatal period. Perinatal women are faced with unparalleled impediments to treatment on substance use and there’s limited information on the additional effects of psychiatric comorbidity on the treatment for substance abuse in perinatal period. This then creates a need for an enquiry on the traits of women that primarily use marijuana and their particular needs with an aim of ameliorating treatment services and results for women and infants. This study therefore aims at: a) identifying a profile of perinatal women seeking treatment for marijuana abuse, and b) report outcomes on birth in expectant women who abuse marijuana.
The research was conducted among 67 adult participants, perinatal women patients (54% ethnic minority) who attended a hospital initiated outpatient program that stressed on substance abuse treatment for expectant and postpartum women. The study mainly relied on chart reviews, in that, outcome data was collected from clinical notes, patients charts and urinalysis records results. Substance abuse, marijuana included was monitored via supervision of urine samples collected on a weekly basis The study was in line with existing ethical principles and got approval from the Board on Women and Infant Hospital Institutional Review.
During program enrollment, 46% of the women were expectant and 54% of the were postpartum. Regarding the frequency of self-report on substance abuse, 12% of the women reported on a daily basis, 13% of them on 3-6 times a week and 1-2 times a week for the rest of the women. During the first semester, 26% of all expectant women reported positive urine screens, 41% of them in the second semester and 27% in the third semester. The overall birth outcomes indicated that 74% of the expectant mothers had vaginal deliveries, with majority of the infants (79%) being discharged together with their mothers and another 19% taken to parental care.
In conclusion, there were reductions in the use of marijuana for expectant and post-partum enrollees. The program therefore, can be said to have had an impact on the abuse of marijuana among the expectant women because 13% of them had stopped using marijuana at the time of delivery and this was confirmed by urinalysis.
The study however, wasn’t thorough enough. In terms of examination of the effects of marijuana use on infant outcomes, the sample size used was small and there were difficulties when it came to comparison amongst subsets of expectant women. In addition, the research’s naturalistic clinic context may have curtailed the validity of the gathered data during the treatment process. Furthermore, standardized measures were not used to infer psychiatric diagnoses.
Bibliography
Bailey BA, McCook JG, Hodge A, McGrady L. Infant birth outcomes among substance using women: why quitting smoking during pregnancy is just as important as quitting illicit drug use. Maternal Child Health Journal. 2012;16(2):414–422.
De Moraes Barros MC, Guinsburg R, de Araujo PC, Mitsuhiro S, Chalem E, Laranjeira RR. Exposure to marijuana during pregnancy alters neurobehavior in the early neonatal period. Journal of Pediatrics. 2006;149(6):781–787.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings.
Terplan M, Lui S. Psychosocial interventions for pregnant women in outpatient illicit drug treatment programs compared to other interventions (Review). The Cochrane Collaboration. The Cochrane Library. 2008;(Issue 3) 2008.
Vesga-Lopez O, Blanco C, Keyes K, Olfson M, Grant B, Hasin D. Psychiatric disorders in pregnant and postpartum women in the United States. Archives of General Psychiatry. 2008;65(7):805–815.