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Children born to mothers who used cocaine during pregnancy exhibit abnormalities of attention and arousal that persist at least into adolescence. To understand why, investigators performed functional magnetic resonance imaging on infants with prenatal exposure to cocaine alone or with other substances (PCE; n=45), to substances other than cocaine (alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, antidepressants; NCOC; n=43), or to no drugs (n=64). Postnatal drug exposure through breast-feeding was minimal, except for nicotine, used by 17 women. Use of substances other than cocaine was similar in the PCE and NCOC women.
On average, PCE infants were born 7 days earlier and 14 oz lighter than infants without cocaine exposure. In analyses controlled for relevant c…