Drug Exposure

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Skyrocketing use of drugs and alcohol, leading to higher numbers of drug exposed children, has been targeted as a primary factor in the increase in children placed in out-of-home care in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Studies estimating the incidence of prenatal alcohol and drug exposure do not agree upon a precise incidence level:

Alcohol

• 2.6 million infants each year are prenatally exposed to alcohol. (Gomby and Shiono, 1991)
  
  
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) affects between 1.3 and 2.2 children per 1,000 live births in North America each year. (Streissguth and Guiunta, 1988; US DHHS, 1990)
  
  
• Cases of Alcohol Related Birth Defects (ARBD) outnumber cases of FAS by a ratio of 2 to 3 to 1. (Abel and Dintcheff, 1984; Streissguth and Guiunta, 1988)
  
  

Illicit Drugs

• Each year, 11% of all newborns, or 459,690, are exposed to illicit drugs. (Chasnoff, 1989)
  
  
• More than 739,000 women each year use one or more illicit drugs during pregnancy. (Gomby and Shiono, 1991)
  
  
• A substance exposed infant is born more frequently than once every 90 seconds. (Schipper, 1991)
  
  

Bibliography

Abel, E. and Dintcheff, B. (1984). Factors affecting the outcome of maternal alcohol exposure: I. Parity. Neurobehavioral Toxicology and Teratology, 6: 373-377.

Chasnoff, I.J. (1989). Drug use in women: Establishing a standard of care. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 562, 208-210.

Gomby, D., and Shiono, P. (1991). Estimating the number of substance-exposed infants. The Future of Children: Adoption, 1 (1), 17.

Schipper, W.(1991). Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control.

Streissguth, A., and Giunta, C. (1988). Mental health and health needs of infants and preschool children with fetal alcohol syndrome. International Journal of Family Psychiatry: 29-47.

US Department of Health and Human Services. (1990). Fetal alcohol syndrome and other effects of alcohol on pregnancy. In Seventh Special Report to US Congress on Alcohol and Health from the Secretary of Health and Human Services (pp. 139-161). Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services.

Credits: Child Welfare Information Gateway (http://www.childwelfare.gov)