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ABSTRACT: To examine the association between parents' report of their child's secondhand smoke exposure and various adjustments of cotinine concentrations in random urine samples.
Urine cotinine and creatinine were measured in 109 six to 11-year-old children from predominantly upper middle-class families. Cotinine values were considered as: (a) unadjusted, (b) as a cotinine/creatinine ratio, (c) as adjusted based on a regression relationship between cotinine and creatinine, and (d) and (e) as a cotinine/creatinine ratio adjusted for age and sex.
Little overlap in cotinine values occurred between exposed and nonexposed children, and a dose-response relationship was noted between the parental report and the urine cotinine values (r = 0.67). A modest improvement occurred in the correlation when the cotinine/creatinine ratio was considered. Considering exposure to cigarette smoke outside the home as well as in the household only improved the correlation when the former exposure was heavy. A high degree of concordance exists between the parents' report of exposure and the child's urine cotinine.
The value of adjusting this biochemical parameter by various means may be a function of the particular sample being investigated, suggesting no one method is universally appropriate.
Clinical Biochemistry 09/1995; 28(4):415-20. · 2.08 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Cognitive and receptive language development were examined in 135 60-month-old and 137 72-month-old children for whom prenatal exposure to marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol had been ascertained. Discriminant Function analysis revealed an association between prenatal cigarette exposure and lower cognitive and receptive language scores at 60 and 72 months. This paralleled and extended observations made with this sample at annual assessments at 12 to 48 months of age. Unlike observations made at 48 months, prenatal exposure to marijuana was not associated with the cognitive and verbal outcomes. Relatively low levels of maternal alcohol consumption did not have significant relationships with the outcome variables. The importance of assessing subtle components rather than global cognitive and language skills to detect potential behavioral teratogenic effects of the drugs being examined is discussed.
Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics 01/1993; 13(6):383-91. · 2.13 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This article examines the relationships between classical trait units as represented by the five-factor model (e.g., Digman, 1990) and personal action construct (PAC) units as measured by Personal Projects Analysis (Little, 1983). One hundred and forty-seven students were administered the NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1985) and two components of Personal Projects methodology during their first term in university. Neuroticism and Conscientiousness were related to problematic and positive project systems, respectively, with these effects generalizing across the academic and interpersonal project domains. Extraversion and Agreeableness were also associated with positive evaluations of personal projects, particularly in the interpersonal domain. Openness was distinctively linked with project initiation and value congruency. We suggest theoretical and applied implications of using PAC methods to expand and refine the classical trait research agenda.
Journal of Personality 07/1992; 60(2):501-25. · 2.44 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Aspects of neurobehavioral development were examined in 133 36-month- and 130 48-month-old children for whom prenatal exposure to marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol had been previously ascertained and who have been assessed since birth. Parallelling earlier observations made with this sample at 12 and 24 months, prenatal exposure to cigarette smoking was significantly associated with poorer language development and lower cognitive scores at both 36 and 48 months after statistically controlling for confounding factors. Relatively low levels of maternal alcohol consumption, which had measurable effects at 24 and 36 months, no longer had significant relationships with outcome variables at 48 months of age. At 48 months, significantly lower scores in verbal and memory domains were associated with maternal marijuana use after adjusting for confounding variables. This negative relationship is the first reported association beyond the neonatal stage, and may represent a long-term effect of the drug upon complex behavior that, at a younger age, had not developed and/or could not be assessed.
Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics 05/1990; 11(2):49-58. · 2.13 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Aspects of attentional behaviour in 4--7-year-olds, as assessed by auditory and visual vigilance tasks, were related to prenatal exposure to cigarettes. Data on 76--79 children born to healthy, white, predominantly middle-class women were analyzed using multiple regression techniques controlling for potentially confounding variables including postnatal second hand smoke exposure. Cigarette smoking during pregnancy was related to an increased activity level of the children during the tasks and increased errors of commission in the auditory task and, to a lesser degree, in the visual task. After controlling for confounding factors, the relationship between prenatal smoking and errors of omission did not retain significance. The combination of results suggest that the deficits in attention may reflect impulsive responding and increased overall activity.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence 09/1989; 24(1):11-9. · 3.38 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The neurological status of 9- and 30-day-old infants, as assessed by the Prechtl neurological examination, was significantly and differentially related to prenatal exposure of cigarettes, marijuana, and alcohol. Data on approximately 250 babies, born to healthy, white, predominantly middle-class women, were analyzed using discriminant function analyses controlling for potentially confounding variables. Prenatal cigarette exposure was associated with hypertonicity and increased nervous system excitation, particularly at 30 days, prenatal marijuana exposure was associated with symptoms similar to mild narcotic withdrawal, and prenatal exposure to relatively low levels of alcohol was associated with slightly lowered nervous system arousal at 9 days of age. The results were related to behavioral observations on neonates exposed to drugs prenatally.
Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics 01/1988; 8(6):318-26. · 2.13 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In a prospective study the relationship of marijuana use during pregnancy to infant birth weight and length of gestation was examined in 583 women who delivered single live infants. Eighty-four women used marijuana to varying degrees during pregnancy. Marijuana, alcohol, smoking, and nutritional habits were estimated by repeated interviews. Compared to nonuse, an average use of marijuana six or more times per week during pregnancy was associated with a statistically significant reduction of 0.8 weeks in the length of gestation after consideration of the effects of nicotine, alcohol, parity, mother's prepregnancy weight, and the sex of the infant. With similar adjustments no reduction in birth weight was noted. Among the heavy marijuana users the effect of gestation length was does dependent.
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 10/1984; 150(1):23-7. · 3.47 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Two hundred and seventeen women were interviewed during various stages of pregnancy to determine the extent and changing patterns of alcohol, nicotine and marihuana use in the year before pregnancy and during each trimester of pregnancy. Nutritional intake did not vary among women in the various drug using categories. Before pregnancy, 18% of the women were heavy social drinkers. During the first trimester this proportion was reduced by two-thirds and, in contrast to the other levels of social drinking, continued to decline during the last two trimesters. Age, income, education and smoking were all positively associated with heavy social drinking. Heavy cigarette smoking was reported by 13% of the women before pregnancy and by 8% during each of the trimesters. Education and income were negatively associated with heavy smoking. Three per cent of the women reported smoking more than five joints of marihuana per week before pregnancy and most continued to smoke marihuana heavily during pregnancy. The heavy marihuana users had a lower family income and less formal education than the overall sample. Marihuana use in general was associated with cigarette smoking and was not reported by women over 32 years of age. Except for heavy social drinking, soft drug habits at all levels of usage remained essentially unchanged after the first trimester. The likelihood of any one particular soft drug being reduced once pregnancy was established did not vary as a function of the concomitant use of other soft drug(s).
Drug and Alcohol Dependence 12/1980; 6(5):323-43. · 3.38 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Weight, height, head circumference, and pubertal milestones were examined in one hundred fifty-two 13- to 16-year-old adolescents for whom prenatal exposure to marihuana and cigarettes had been ascertained. The subjects were from a low-risk, predominantly middle-class sample participating in an ongoing, longitudinal study and whose growth has been monitored since birth. The weight of the 13- to 16-year-old children of heavy cigarette smokers, after statistical adjustment, did not differ from control subjects but they had a significantly higher Ponderal Index (PI). These observations continued those noted when these subjects were 9 to 12 years of age. Among the male offspring of cigarette smokers, pubertal milestones occurred at an earlier age than among male adolescents born to nonsmokers. Active smoking by the offspring did not moderate these findings. Maternal marihuana use was not associated with any growth measurement or the timing of pubertal milestones.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 23(5):431-6. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Facets of attention were examined in 152 13- to 16-year-old adolescents for whom prenatal exposure to marihuana and cigarettes had been ascertained. The subjects, participants in an ongoing longitudinal study, were from a low-risk, predominantly middle-class sample. The assessment battery included 11 variables derived from a Continuous Performance Test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Stroop Test, a number of memory tasks and four subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. A principal components analysis yielded a five-factor model that was highly concordant with a recent model of attention proposed by Mirsky. Prenatal cigarette exposure was associated with an encode/retain (working memory) component of attention and, at the younger age, with the impulsivity element. Prenatal marihuana was associated with the factor describing stability of attention over time. The differential drug findings were consistent with and extend observations noted when this sample was assessed at earlier ages.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 23(5):421-30. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: One hundred and ten, 6- to 11-year-old children from a low-risk, predominantly middle class sample who are participants in an ongoing longitudinal drug study were assessed using a central auditory processing task (SCAN) that made perceptual rather than linguistic demands. Maternal smoking during pregnancy was linearly associated with poorer performance on the overall SCAN and, particularly, the Competing Words subtest which may be an indication of the child's auditory maturation. The significant associations remained after adjusting for other drug use, demographic variables, and passive smoke exposure both during pregnancy and postnatally. The child's recent second-hand smoke exposure was evaluated by a parental questionnaire and by urine cotinine assay. Neither prenatal nor postnatal passive smoke exposure was statistically significantly associated with the SCAN results. However, among the children of nonsmokers, passive smoke exposure resulted in average scores similar to those of the prenatal light smoking group. The findings are discussed in relation to earlier observations that have reported an association between smoking during pregnancy and altered auditory functioning in the offspring.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 16(3):269-76. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Attentional behavior was examined in one hundred twenty-six 72-month-old children for whom prenatal exposure to marihuana, cigarettes, and alcohol has previously been ascertained. Discriminant Function Analysis revealed a dose-response association between prenatal cigarette exposure and impulsive behavior as manifest on poorer performance on a response inhibition task and increased errors of commission on a sustained vigilance task. Performance on a series of memory tasks particularly those requiring verbal recall was also negatively associated with maternal cigarette use. Prenatal marihuana habits were associated with increased omission errors in the vigilance task, possibly reflecting a deficit in sustained attention. In addition, Discriminant Function Analysis revealed a dose-response relationship between prenatal marihuana use and a higher rating by the mothers on an impulsive/hyperactive scale. Relatively low levels of maternal alcohol consumption was related to decreased impulsive responding both in the response inhibition task and in terms of the mothers' perception of the child's behavior. The multifaceted approach of examining attentional behavior was essential to reveal the differential associations with the three prenatally used drugs. The implications of the observations and how the findings relate to and extend the existing literature is discussed.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 14(5):299-311. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Previous research has determined that maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with negative effects for the child at birth and throughout childhood. Much less is known about the consequences of exposure to secondary smoke during fetal development. The present study investigates and compares the long-term consequences of active and passive smoking during pregnancy. Ninety-one children between the ages of six and nine years were tested using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. After considering potential confounds, children of nonsmoking mothers generally were found to perform better than the two smoking groups on tests of speech and language skills, intelligence, visual/spatial abilities and on the mother's rating of behavior. The performance of children of passive smokers was found, in most areas, to be between that of the active smoking and nonsmoking groups. It was concluded that there is a continuum of long-term smoking effects and that, although active maternal smoking is associated with effects of greater breadth and magnitude than passive maternal smoking, children of passive smokers are also at risk for a pattern of negative developmental outcomes.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 13(1):5-12. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Weight, height, and head circumference were examined in children from birth to early adolescence for whom prenatal exposure to marijuana and cigarettes had been ascertained. The subjects were from a low-risk, predominantly middle-class sample participating in an ongoing longitudinal study. The negative association between growth measures at birth and prenatal cigarette exposure was overcome, sooner in males than females, within the first few years, and by the age of six, the children of heavy smokers were heavier than control subjects. Pre and postnatal environmental tobacco smoke did not have a negative effect upon the growth parameters; however, the choice of bottle-feeding or shorter duration of breast-feeding by women who smoked during pregnancy appeared to play an important positive role in the catch-up observed among the infants of smokers. Prenatal exposure to marijuana was not significantly related to any growth measures at birth, although a smaller head circumference observed at all ages reached statistical significance among the early adolescents born to the heavy marijuana users.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 21(5):513-25. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The present study examined effects of current and past regular cigarette smoking in young adult subjects. One hundred and twelve 17-21-year-old subjects, assessed since infancy, were evaluated using a battery of neurocognitive tests for which commensurate measures were obtained at 9-12 years of age, prior to the initiation of regular smoking. Smokers, determined by urinalysis and self-report, were categorized as heavy (>9 cigarettes per day) and light (<9 cigarettes per day) current smokers and former smokers, the latter having smoked cigarettes regularly in the past but not for at least 6 months. A third of the subjects were currently smoking cigarettes regularly with half of these being heavy smokers. Among former smokers, the average duration of smoking was slightly less than 2 years. Overall IQ, memory, processing speed, vocabulary, attention and abstract reasoning were the primary outcomes with comparisons being made between each of the three user groups and a control group who never smoked regularly. After accounting for potentially confounding factors including clinical assessment, marihuana use and pre-drug performance in the relevant cognitive domain, current regular smokers did significantly worse than non-smokers in a variety of cognitive areas predicated upon verbal/auditory competence including receptive and expressive vocabulary, oral arithmetic, and auditory memory. This impact of current smoking appears to behave in a dose-response and duration-related fashion. In contrast, former smokers differed from the non-smokers only in the arithmetic task. These results suggest that regular smoking during early adulthood is associated with cognitive impairments in selected domains and that these deficits may be reversed upon cessation. Together, the findings add to the body of evidence to be used in persuading adolescents and young adults against the initiation of smoking and, if currently smoking, the advantages of stopping.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 28(4):517-25. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In determining the effects of regular marihuana use on neurocognition, abilities within specific relevant cognitive domains prior to regular drug use have not been available. The present study examined effects of current and past regular use of marihuana in subjects for whom pre-drug performance had been ascertained in a prospective, longitudinal fashion. A total of 113 young adults, assessed since infancy, were evaluated using neurocognitive tests for which commensurate measures were obtained prior to the initiation of marihuana smoking. Marihuana users, determined by urinalysis and self-report, were categorized as light (< 5 joints per week) and heavy (> or = 5 joints per week) current users and former users, the latter having used the drug regularly in the past (> or = 1 joint per week) but not for at least 3 months. A third of the subjects were using marihuana on a regular basis at the time of assessment with half being heavy users. Among former, regular users, approximately half had been smoking 5 or more joints per week. Overall IQ, memory, processing speed, vocabulary, attention, and abstract reasoning were assessed. After accounting for potentially confounding factors and pre-drug performance in the appropriate cognitive domain, current regular heavy users did significantly worse than non-users in overall IQ, processing speed, immediate, and delayed memory. In contrast, the former marihuana smokers did not show any cognitive impairments. It was concluded that residual marihuana effects are evident beyond the acute intoxication period in current heavy users after taking into account pre-drug performance but similar deficits are no longer apparent 3 months after cessation of regular use, even among former heavy using young adults.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 27(2):231-9. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Visuoperceptual performance was examined in 146 9- to 12-year old children for whom prenatal exposure to marihuana and cigarettes had been ascertained. The subjects, participants in an ongoing longitudinal study, were from a low-risk, predominantly middle class sample. The tasks ranged in complexity from those that required basic visuoperceptual skills to those that required considerable integration and cognitive manipulation of such skills. Trend analysis revealed a dose dependent negative association between prenatal cigarette exposure and an overall score reflecting basic visuoperceptual functioning. This association remained after consideration of potential prenatal confounds, pre- and postnatal secondhand smoke exposure, and the nonperceptual demands of the tasks. This poorer performance in the basic visuoperceptual domain underlay a poorer performance in more complex visuoperceptual tasks among the offspring of cigarette smokers. In contrast, prenatal marihuana exposure was not associated with basic visuoperceptual functioning but was negatively associated with performance in visual problem solving situations. The interpretation of the marihuana findings is discussed in relation to a "top-down" integrative ability associated with executive function, the extant prefrontal literature, and earlier observations of this sample.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 22(1):11-20. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Cognitive performance was examined in 131 9-12-year-old children for whom prenatal marihuana and cigarette exposure had been ascertained. The subjects, participants in an ongoing longitudinal study, were from a low-risk, predominantly middle class sample. The tasks included the WISC-III and a series of tests assessing aspects of cognition subsumed under the rubric of executive function. Consistent with results obtained at earlier ages, discriminant function analysis revealed a dose-dependent association, which remained after controlling for potential confounds (including secondhand smoke), between prenatal cigarette exposure and lower global intelligence scores with the verbal subtests of the WISC maximally discriminating among levels of in utero exposure. In contrast, prenatal marihuana exposure was not associated with global intelligence or the verbal subtests. Rather, this drug was negatively associated with the executive function tasks that require impulse control and visual analysis/hypothesis testing and with a number of WISC subtests requiring the same abilities. The interpretation of these results is discussed in terms of executive function and is related to earlier observations of this sample and to the extant prefrontal and general marihuana literature.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 20(3):293-306. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Prospective information gathered through the course of pregnancy, perinatal measurements, and retrospective data collected postnatally were used to investigate the changing patterns and effects of caffeine use of 286 women participating in the Ottawa Prenatal Prospective Study. Data were collected on maternal use of tea, coffee, caffeinated soft-drinks, chocolate bars and drinks and caffeinated medication. The volume and analysed caffeine concentration of 53 samples of coffee and tea, prepared by subjects as they usually consumed it, were used to examine the predictive potential of the women's subjective description of the beverages. Self-reports of volume and beverage strength were found to be valid predictors; the method of coffee preparation held little predictive power. An algorithm for estimating caffeine intake retrospectively over time was developed. During pregnancy most women continued to consume caffeine but usually at lower intake levels. After pregnancy, caffeine consumption tended to persist at reduced levels for several months and then returned to prepregnancy patterns. Maternal caffeine intake of more than 300 mg daily during pregnancy was associated with lowered birth weight and smaller head circumference of the infant after accounting for maternal nicotine use. No relationship was apparent between maternal caffeine use and the incidence of caesarian sections, breech births, miscarriages or premature births.
Neurobehavioral toxicology and teratology 7(1):9-17.
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ABSTRACT: The motor, mental, and language development plus the home environment was examined in 217 twelve-month and 153 twenty-four-month-old children for whom prenatal exposure to marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes was previously ascertained. With this low-risk sample multiple regression analysis was used to assess the association between outcome measures and prenatal drug exposure while adjusting for potential confounding factors. Prenatal exposure to marijuana was uniquely positively associated with a series of items evaluating the child's attitudes and interests that reflect a cognitive factor. Moderate levels of alcohol were significantly associated with lower mental scores at 24 months of age. Prenatal maternal cigarette smoking was significantly associated with lower mental scores at 12 months of age and altered responses on auditory items at 12 and 24 months. However, at 24 months, the strong relationship of postnatal environmental factors with cognitive outcomes and with prenatal maternal smoking resulted in loss of significant, unique predictive power for maternal smoking. Based on the present work and supplemented by previously reported data pertaining to maternal attitudes during pregnancy and neonatal behaviour, a transactional interpretation is presented.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology 10(4):305-13. · 2.98 Impact Factor
