Surviving a mother’s drug abuse long enough to be born healthy is certainly a victory for a baby. But new research from the Miller School of Medicine shows that damage done in the womb may not end there.

Veronica H. Accornero, Ph.D., assistant professor of clinical pediatrics, and her colleagues found that maternal cocaine use can have lasting effects, lowering performance on attention tests fully seven years after birth. Researchers looked at computerized continuous performance test scores of 415 children who took tests at age 5 and/or 7 (now 14 to 16 years old). The mothers of 219 of the children had taken cocaine while pregnant and the mothers of the other 196 had not. This study was conducted as part of an ongoing investigation known as the Miami Prenatal Cocaine Study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and directed by Emmalee S. Bandstra, M.D., principal investigator and professor of pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology.

Children who were exposed to cocaine prenatally were more likely to make errors of omission and had slower reaction times than children from the other group.

“This study provides further evidence of a subtle but consistent effect of prenatal cocaine exposure on attention through early school-aged years,” says Accornero.

Based on other findings from the Miami Prenatal Cocaine Study, these children appear to have more difficulty paying attention, poorer language development, and greater risk for learning disabilities but overall do not show global, significant cognitive delays compared with their non-exposed peers.

The study appeared in the June issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Connie Morrow, Ph.D., research associate professor of pediatrics and psychology, also worked on the study, along with colleagues at the University of Maryland, Michigan State University, and The Johns Hopkins University.