According to new research, using marijuana while pregnant can lead to mental and behavioral issues in children.
The study published this week found that women who use cannabis during their pregnancies could be putting their children at risk of developing mental health and behavioral problems early in life.
“As cannabis use becomes more prevalent, especially during pregnancy, it’s important to learn what the potential risk factors are,” said Yasmin Hurd, a neuroscientist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and the lead author of the new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“It’s not that I think that cannabis is a horrible thing,” she said. “But it is a drug that we need to make sure we understand which individuals may be more vulnerable.”
Participants were part of a bigger research project called the Stress in Pregnancy study, which began in 2009. The study examined how stress during pregnancy affects fetal growth and development. Pregnant women were invited to enroll in the study during their second trimesters, and women were asked to participate with their children in follow-up assessments up to four years after birth.
The new research looked at a subset of 322 mother-child pairs from the larger study, which included 71 women who reported using cannabis during pregnancy.
The researchers found that in this group that cannabis use during pregnancy was connected to increased levels of stress, anxiety, aggression and hyperactivity in young children. The study also identified genetic changes in the placentas of pregnant cannabis users that directly correlated to the increased anxiety and stress in their young children.
The researchers also found that children born to women who used cannabis while pregnant had higher levels of a stress hormone called cortisol in hair samples compared to children born to nonusers.
Children of women who used during their pregnancies had increased anxiety and hyperactivity in behavioral assessments. And young girls whose mothers used cannabis during pregnancy demonstrated higher levels of aggression.
