Abstract

The use of addictive substances during pregnancy is a serious social problem, not only because of effects on the health of the woman and child, but also because drug or alcohol dependency it detracts from childcare and enhances the prospect of child neglect and family breakdown. Developing additive substance abuse treatment programs for pregnant women is socially important and can help ensure the health of babies, prevent subsequent developmental and behavioral problems (i.e., from intake of alcohol and other additive substances such as methamphetamine, cocaine, or heroine) and can reduce the cost to society. Because women of childbearing age often abuse controlled substances during their pregnancy, it is important to undertake biomonitoring of these substances in biological samples taken from the pregnant or nursing mother (blood, urine, hair, breast milk, swet, oral fluids), from the fetus and newborn (meconium, cord blood, neonatal hair and urine) and from both the mother and fetus (amniotic fluids, placenta). Maternal and neonatal biological materials reflect exposure in a specific time period and each of them has different advantages and disadvantages in terms of accuracy, time window of exposure and cost/benefit ratio. Sampling the placenta may be the most important biomonitoring step for assessing in utero exposure to addictive substances. The use of placenta in scientific research causes a minimum of ethical problems partly because the experiments are non-invasive, causing no harm to mother or child, and partly because placentas are discarded and incinerated after birth. Such samples, when properly analyzed may provide the key information necessary about fetal exposure to toxic substances, and may provide the groundwork for protecting the fetus or newborn and the mother from further damage. Sensitive and specific bioanalytical methods are commonly utilized to accurately measure for biomarkers of in utero drug exposure. Different immunoassays methods are used as screening methods for drug testing in the above reported specimens, however, the results from immunoassays should be carefully interpreted and confirmed by a more specific and sensitive chromatographic methods such as GC-MS or LC-MS. Although, the techniques for analysis are still being developed or refined, current methods are efficient and sensitive and provide valuable information of exposures to addictive substances and their metabolites.

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Authors (5)