The association between prenatal cannabis exposure and childhood outcomes was recently examined in a longitudinal study, the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. The study recruited 11,489 children between the ages of 9 and 11 years old, along with the parent/caregiver from 22 sites across the United States between June 1, 2016 and October 15, 2018. Of the 11,489 children, 655 (5.7%) were exposed to cannabis prenatally. Relative to no exposure, cannabis use only before (413 [3.6%]) and after (242 [2.1%]) maternal knowledge of pregnancy were associated with greater offspring psychopathology characteristics (ie, psychotic-like experiences, and internalizing, externalizing, attention, thought and, social problems), sleep problems, and body mass index, as well as lower cognition and gray matter volume (all |ß| > 0.02; all false discovery rate [FDR]–corrected P < 0.03). Lower birth weight and reduced total intracranial volume/ white matter volumes were only associated with exposure to cannabis after knowledge of pregnancy, relative to no exposure, and exposure only before knowledge (all |ß| > 0.02; all FDR-corrected P < 0.04). The results suggest that prenatal cannabis exposure may be associated with higher risk for psychopathology during middle childhood.
Reference:
Baul SE; Hatoum AS, Fine JD et al. JAMA 2020; doi:10.1001. Abstract
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