Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of Children Born to Opioid-Dependent Mothers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: Children born to opioid-dependent mothers are at risk of adverse neurodevelopment. The magnitude of this risk remains inconclusive.

Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis of studies that assessed neurodevelopmental outcomes of children aged 0 to 12 years born to opioid-dependent mothers, compared with children born to nonopioid-dependent mothers, across general cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional domains.

Data sources: PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar databases.

Study eligibility criteria: English-language publications between January 1993 and November 2018, including prenatally opioid-exposed and nonopioid-exposed comparison children, reporting outcomes data on standardized assessments.

Study appraisal and synthesis methods: Two reviewers independently extracted data. Pooled standardized mean differences (SMDs) were analyzed using random effects models. Risk of bias was assessed with the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale.

Results: Across 16 studies, individual domain outcomes data were examined for between 93 to 430 opioid-exposed and 75 to 505 nonopioid-exposed infants/children. Opioid-exposed infants and children performed more poorly than their nonopioid-exposed peers across all outcomes examined, demonstrated by lower infant cognitive (SMD = 0.77) and psychomotor scores (SMD = 0.52), lower general cognition/IQ (SMD = 0.76) and language scores (SMD = 0.65-0.74), and higher parent-rated internalizing (SMD = 0.42), externalizing (SMD = 0.66), and attention problems (SMD = 0.72).

Limitations: Most studies examined early neurodevelopment; only 3 reported school-age outcomes thereby limiting the ability to assess longer-term impacts of prenatal opioid exposures.

Conclusions and implications of findings: Children born to opioid-dependent mothers are at modest- to high-risk of adverse neurodevelopment at least to middle childhood. Future studies should identify specific clinical and social factors underlying these challenges to improve outcomes.

Keywords: analgesics; buprenorphine; child; child behavior; child development; cognition; heroin; infant; intelligence; language development; meta-analysis; methadone; narcotics; neurodevelopmental disorders; opiate substitution treatment; opioid; opioid-related disorders; prenatal exposure delayed effects; prenatal opioid exposure; psychomotor performance.