Introduction: Exposure to addictive substances during pregnancy is a major global and growing problem. Given that pregnancy is a very important period in the life of the mother and fetus, and the central nervous system is one of the first places to be damaged, the importance of pregnancy becomes more and more apparent. Just as the rate of absorption of a drug by mouth, inhalation, smoking, and injection is not the same, its effects on the vital organs of the fetus and its toxicity are also different.
Prenatal drug exposure delays the growth and development of brain and neural structures during the fetal or postnatal period. During development, the noradrenergic system plays a role in regulating neural growth, which is essential for maintaining normal central nervous system function. It is also involved in many cognitive processes, such as attention and working memory. Therefore, altered norepinephrine levels can lead to attention deficit disorder.
Methods: This article is a review and reliable articles have been used to collect its information.
Results: Prenatal exposure to addictive substances reduces dopamine receptor gene expression in adult offspring and also damages the fetal central nervous system, affecting infants' cognitive development such as memory and learning, attention, language, problem-solving, and executive skills.
Studies on rats also show that oral morphine consumption by pregnant mothers delays the development of the lateral ventricle and chorionic ependymal cells of the fetus, and on the other hand, this effect may lead to disruption of the normal function of these cells, namely the secretion of cerebrospinal fluid and blood supply to brain cells.
Any decrease or increase in cerebrospinal fluid by choroid ependymoma cells can cause abnormalities such as hydrocephalus and enlargement of the brain ventricles. An animal study suggests that prenatal morphine exposure affects serotonin production and metabolism.
Another study also showed that prenatal exposure to morphine significantly increased hypothalamic serotonin production in adult male rats, and that serotonin levels in the temporal cortex were increased in rats exposed to methadone prenatally.
Conclusion: Addiction as a disease creates many problems for society, especially for pregnant women. Since drugs easily cross the placenta, they can cause impairment in motor skills, problem-solving skills, attention, speech, comprehension, and cognitive functions. There is also a close connection between maternal addiction during pregnancy and the addiction of children in their future lives.
According to the findings,
Further studies are urgently needed to investigate the effects of exposure to addictive substances on all aspects of life.
On the other hand, in children who have been exposed to addictive substances before birth and suffer from mental, emotional, and social problems, exercise, as well as the use of vitamins and omega-3, can be used as valuable therapeutic strategies and have beneficial effects.
Keywords: Addictive substances, fetus, central nervous system