"Crack Baby" Scare of 1980s Overblown: A Study

Cocaine use during pregnancy may not result in major long-term effects in the baby itself, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

During the 1980s, crack cocaine - a solid, smokeable form of the substance - became cheap and widely available in many cities throughout the nation. As a result, the drug became the center of public health action, especially in regards to its use during pregnancy, which many hypothesized would result in a myriad of problems in those babies exposed to the drug during conception, including addiction later in life.

Now, some 30 years later, many of those babies are now adults and, according to the study, such projections were largely off base.

While some studies have linked pregnant women’s cocaine use with children’s behavior difficulties, attention problems, anxiety and poor performance in school, such effects are largely small and mostly the result of violence and other issues in the family such as the parents’ continued drug use and poverty, according to the researchers.

In order to come to these results, the scientists reviewed 27 studies and more than 5,000 individuals between the ages of 11 and 17 whose parents used cocaine while they were pregnant. All came from low-income households and the majority were black and raised in urban settings.

In so doing, researchers found that while there was a difference between those who experienced prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) and those who did not, the differences were minimal and likely the result of other mitigating factors.

For this reason, the study concluded that "it is now well documented that scientific reports in the 1980s were exaggerated and incorrect in their portrayal of children exposed to cocaine in utero as irreparably damaged.”

However, the study does not remain the last word as the the scientists themselves indicated, stating that “future research should investigate mechanisms linking PCE with adolescent functioning.”