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Drug-exposed infants

Low birth weight infants who tested positive for cocaine and opiates had higher perinatal mortality rates than drug-negative infants, but overall mortality rates were not significant during the first two years of life, Michigan researchers stated.

Through meconium analysis, researchers anonymously drug-tested 2,964 infants delivered at a Detroit hospital and followed up on mortality rates using the death registry of the Michigan Department of Public Health.

Results showed 30.5 percent of infants tested positive for cocaine, 20.2 percent for opiates, and 11.4 percent for cannabinoids.

Within one to two years, 44 infants died, 18 of whom were drug-positive at birth.

Researchers found head circumference, weight and length at birth were significantly lower among drug-positive neonates than drug-negative neonates, and 54 percent of infants with SIDS were positive for drugs, predominantly cocaine.

Researchers concluded that while low birthweight infants exposed to cocaine and opiates have higher perinatal mortality rates, prenatal drug exposure in infants is not associated with an increase in mortality rate during the first two years of life.