Is Methadone Really Safer Than Heroin for the Neonate?

What are the primary findings of this study?
     
 It has been found that women who use illegal substances while pregnant bring about a multitude of complications to the fetus as well as themselves. It can be the cause of premature birth weight, still birth, or complications after delivery. The accepted form of treatment for a women addicted to heroin while pregnant is methadone. It has come to the attention of researchers that the benefits of
methadone may be counteractive when used with heroin or other illegal substances. Methadone has been shown to have negative impacts to the health of the fetus, compounded when both methadone and heroin are used simultaneously. This study took a population of 183 between the years of 2004 to 2011 who visited a particular clinic in Sydney, Australia. From the data, they divided the women into groups who used heroin, heroin and methadone, and methadone while pregnant. The results showed that on average, methadone babies had a mean higher birth weight compared to the heroin babies. The number of premature births was lower among methadone babies, somewhat higher with methadone and heroin babies, and the highest among heroin babies. The treatment of neonatal abstinence syndrome or NAS was similar between the groups.

What are the implications of these new findings?

This study suggests that there is little difference in the outcome of baby when the mother uses methadone or heroin. The babies were still born with NAS, and had similar chances of being premature or have a low birth weight, even though some of the results showed a higher birth weight for methadone users. One interesting result from this study was that custody was granted to the mother at a much higher percent with the methadone group. It may mean that the mothers were serious about overcoming heroin addiction and wanted to keep the baby. This study, like some others recently published was able to show that methadone use did not have a significant improvement on the health of the baby when compared to heroin use.

Limitations of the research

Some limitations of the research included a small study sample, as well as a specific clinic from which the data was collected. The women also reported the use of tobacco use during the course of the pregnancy, which may have affected the results. This was one of many studies which have looking into the effectiveness and benefits of treating heroin addiction with methadone in pregnant women.

Buckley, V., Razaghi, A., & Haber, P. (2013). Predictors of neonatal outcomes amongst a methadone- and/or heroin-dependent population referred to a multidisciplinary perinatal and family drug health service. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 53(5), 464-470. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajo.12080

Abstract