Brief report: Frequency of maternal cocaine use during pregnancy and infant neurobehavioral outcome

Objective: To examine the effects of frequency of prenatal maternal cocaine use on infant neurobehavioral outcome beyond the immediate postpartum period, controlling for other substance use. Methods: At 2 weeks postpartum, the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (BNBAS) was administered to infants (N = 55) and their mothers were asked about their prenatal drug use. Mother/infant dyads were placed in one of two groups based on the number of days of reported cocaine use during pregnancy: high frequency (n = 23, >75(th) percentile reported days of use) or low frequency (n = 32,<75(th) percentile). Results: Infants in the high frequency cocaine group had worse BNBAS excitability scores than infants in the low frequency cocaine group, when other substance use was controlled statistically. Conclusions: High frequency of maternal cocaine use during pregnancy is associated with poorer infant neurobehavioral outcome beyond the early postpartum period, when other substance use is controlled.